Blood Summons
by Rapunzel4
Summary: (AU) When Ran's sister is kidnapped, he sets out after her. Along the way, the threads that he follows to find her end up drawing in companions he never imagined himself having. (Will eventually be RanKen)
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there)

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, others are still up in the air

Author's Note: Well, I was bitten by a random AU muse (which I think might have escaped from HeatherR), and this is the end result. This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Prologue

The sound of the door opening was so soft that it was almost obscured by the noise of a quill scratching over parchment. The man sitting at the large desk in the large room did not glance up from what he was writing, despite the fact that he was perfectly aware that he was no longer alone. Another figure had slipped into the room, stopping without entering the patch of sunshine that streamed in through the large windows behind the desk. The person stood in shadow, waiting to be acknowledged.

The man at the desk half nodded at the figure. "Well?" he said, sounding impatient.

"We found the one you were looking for."

The man straightened, giving the speaker his full attention. "Finally. Where is she?"

"She's dead," came the short reply.

"What!"

"Apparently, she died a few years ago."

"You took too long to find her! Now what will we do? The plan is ruined!" the man fumed.

"Not entirely," his informant answered in an almost lazy voice. "There were children."

At this, the man at the desk perked up. "Her children?"

The figure nodded. "There are two of them, orphans now. A boy, fourteen, and a girl, twelve."

The man seemed pleased by this. "Then all is not lost. Bring the boy here, and we'll use him instead."

His informant shook his head decisively. "The boy won't do. He is too old. He'll be difficult to teach, and he won't agree to the plan. He is already set in his ways."

"What of the girl?"

There was a pause. "She might be suitable for our purposes."

"Good. Bring her to me."

"What should we do with the boy?"

"Leave him be. He may prove useful in the future. Do not let him interfere, but do not damage him. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly."

/-/-/-/

"Ran, will you hurry up? I swear you're dragging your feet just to annoy me."

Ran sighed heavily and addressed his younger sister patiently. "Slow down, Aya. You mustn't ride too fast or you'll fall off."

"I will not," she answered confidently. "Besides, it's late afternoon now, and you said you wanted to be back before dark."

That much was true; he did want to reach the estate before the sun set. In fact, he had never particularly wanted to leave it, but Aya had insisted. There was a faire going on in the nearby village, and she had wanted to go in the worst way, but their guardian had forbidden them to go. In a fit of defiance, Aya had persuaded him to help her borrow two of the horses in the stable and ride off to the faire without their guardian's knowledge. The thought that they were traveling alone and without attendants or anyone who knew where they were bothered Ran. Since the death of his parents two years previously, he'd taken it upon himself to look out for Aya's welfare, and the whole trip struck him as being less than a good idea. However, when Aya had come to him that morning dressed for the outing with a smile on her face and bright ribbons braided into her dark hair, he'd found it impossible to say no to her. And now here he was, ridding down the road through the forest that lined the estate with his sister and no one else, and the sun swiftly sinking in the west.

"You were the one who insisted on staying so late," he reminded her. "If you try to hurry now, you'll fall off the horse. She's too big for you anyway."

Aya pouted. "Why must you always spoil my fun?"

"Because someone has to be responsible," Ran answered seriously.

"But why does it have to be you?" Aya protested. "You're only fourteen and yet you talk like an old man and you scold me more than Father ever did."

Ran winced at the mention of his father and tried to cover the expression. Even after two years, he was still sensitive about bringing up his parents and especially about being compared to them. Aya knew that, and she only mentioned the subject when she was irritated with him.

"I have to be responsible because you aren't," he replied grumpily.

Aya stuck her tongue out at him. "You're boring," she proclaimed, and suddenly kicked her horse in the side, causing the animal to break into a startled canter.

"Aya, wait!" Ran tried to follow her, but his own mount had started at the sudden movement and danced anxiously beneath him for a moment before he managed to gain control again.

"Hurry up, Ran!" Aya called back to him in a singsong voice, urging her horse into a gallop. She rounded a slight bend in the road ahead of them, and the trees that lined the road blocked his view of her. Cursing, Ran tried to convince his skittish mount that going forward was a good idea. Finally, he persuaded the animal to move in the right direction and quickly urged it into a canter. Ahead of him, he thought he heard Aya yelp, and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. She'd probably fallen off again. Really, what did she expect when she tried to ride a horse that was too big for her too fast?

Sure enough, when he rounded the corner, he saw the mare Aya had been riding trotting away down the road with an empty saddle. Resignedly, he cast his eyes to the ground, expecting to see his sister sitting in the dirt looking miffed, or tripping over her skirts in an attempt to run after the horse and catch it before it got too far away. Instead, empty road met his gaze. He felt a stirring of unease.

"Aya?" he called. When only silence answered him, he became even more concerned. Where was she? He hadn't been that far behind her. If she was hiding in the woods in an effort to scare him, he was going to sit her down and give her a stern talking to later.

"Aya!" he yelled.

This time he thought he heard a faint noise in response. Off in the trees to his right, he heard a scuffling sound and a muffled voice that sounded vaguely like his sister's. Then, quite suddenly, he heard her crying out.

"Ran! Help!"

Throwing himself out of the saddle, he dashed towards her voice, leaving his horse to wander wherever it pleased. As he ran into the trees, he thought he saw figures ahead of him. It was late afternoon, and the sun was low enough in the sky that it didn't penetrate into the woods very well, but there was enough light for him to make out at least three people in the woods before him. The shortest one, who was struggling to free herself from the grip of one of the other forms, was obviously his sister.

With a feral growl, Ran drew the small dagger he wore on his belt. He wished he had a better weapon, but the knife was all he was allowed to carry with him until he got older. Still, it was better than nothing, and he lashed out with it, striking at the figure that held his sister captive. The person sidestepped neatly out of his way, and he rounded quickly and lunged again, this time managing to draw blood on the person's upper arm. To his disappointment, the figure did not release Aya, and he was readying himself to attack again when hands seized his wrist and twisted mercilessly, forcing him to drop the dagger.

Ran cursed; he had almost forgotten the other person. He kicked at his assailant, but the other was too quick for him, dodging his attack and then seizing him by the throat. Behind him, Ran thought he heard Aya scream as he struggled desperately against the form holding him, one hand trying to pry off the grip on his throat and the other clawing rather ineffectually at his opponent's neck and chest. His only rewards for this were that he determined that his attacker was male, and a small scrap of paper that his hand encountered somewhere in the man's coat. The grip on his neck did not loosen, however, and Ran was beginning to wonder how long he could manage without breathing when the other person spoke.

"Put him down." The voice was calm, collected, and male.

The hand on his neck released him, and Ran felt himself hit the ground with a thud. Sucking in air, he tried to lever himself up, but before he could the man who had tried to strangle him grabbed his wrists and hauled him to his feet, keeping his hands pinned firmly behind his back. The second figure approached him, and Ran observed that his sister was now apparently unconscious and slung over the man's shoulder like a sack of grain. He struggled futilely, but only succeeded in making the grip on his wrists tighten.

The second man stopped right in front of him, and Ran found himself staring into golden eyes as cold and hard as the metal they resembled. "You're lucky my master told me you weren't to be damaged," an indifferent voice informed him. Then a fist went crashing into his stomach, and everything went black.

/-/-/-/

Someone was shaking him.

"Master Ran? Master Ran, are you all right?"

With a groan, Ran opened his eyes. He was forced to shut them again almost immediately as his retinas were assaulted by a bright ball of light just above him. After a moment, he cautiously tried again, and after some blinking, the ball of light resolved itself into a lantern which was being carried by one of the footmen. The man was leaning over him, looking concerned. He could hear other people moving about in the woods a little distance off, but nowhere did he hear the sound of a young, feminine voice.

"Aya!" he gasped, sitting up. Memories of just how he'd come to be lying in the dirt in the forest came flooding back to him and filled him with panic. "Where's Aya!"

"We hoped she'd be with you," the footman informed him regretfully. "No one's seen hide or hair of her since this morning."

"She was with me," Ran said, rising to his feet. He winced as the movement drew rather painful protests from his ribs and stomach.

The footman reached over to steady him. "Careful there," he cautioned.

Ran ignored his warning. "They took her," he growled. "I've got to find her."

"Steady on," the footman said, not releasing him. "Half the estate's already turned out to look for her. You leave it to us. We've got to get you home; your guardian is probably having kittens by now. The whole place has been in an uproar since the horses came back without you two."

"I've got to find her," Ran insisted, shaking off the man's hold. But even as he said it he knew that there was little hope. Aside from the light cast by the footman's lantern, the woods were completely dark. The waxing moon had already set, indicating that it must be fairly late in the evening. Aya's captors, whoever they were, had had hours to get away.

Ran made a noise in his throat of mingled fury and despair, clenching his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his skin. He paused, however, when something in one of his hands crackled slightly. Opening his fist, he found a small scrap of parchment with part of a broken wax seal. For a moment he stared at it blankly, then he remembered his struggles with the man who had tried to strangle him. He'd clawed at the front of the man's coat, and come away with this slip, holding onto it reflexively, since he'd had nothing else to hold onto. Inspecting it, he observed that it appeared to be blank, aside from a small ink blot which had probably been accidental. The seal, however, intrigued him. Only part of it was left, but if he looked closely, he could make out outlines in the wax that might correspond to a crest of some kind. He was squinting at it, trying to see the pattern clearly in the dim light, when the footman clapped a hand on his shoulder, making him jump.

"Come along, Master Ran," the footman said soothingly. "We'll just get you back to the manor while we look for your sister. I'm sure your guardian will want to speak with you."

Ran winced. Oh yes, his guardian would want to speak with him and would probably want to know what the hell he thought he was doing, running off like that with his sister. What made Ran feel worse was that he didn't have a decent answer. He'd known at the time that it was a bad idea to let Aya have her way and leave alone, but he'd done it anyway. Granted, it had been Aya's idea, but he could have and should have stopped her. After all, she was still young and impetuous, but he was old enough to know better and should have considered the consequences. And now his sister, wherever she was, was paying the price for his foolishness and irresponsibility.

Bowing his head in shame, Ran once again tightened his fist around the scrap of parchment. It was the only lead he had, and represented his only chance to put things right. He would track down the men who had taken his sister and find where and why they had taken her if it took the rest of his life.

'Aya,' he vowed silently, 'I will find you. And when I do, I'll never fail you again.'

Tbc...

Author's Ramblings: Oh my God, I've started an epic. It's quite long already, and I'm only a few chapters in, but then I've been very productive lately. It's amazing how having a biochemistry final makes you want to write fanfiction. Or read fanfiction, or play solitaire, or do the dishes, or clean the bathroom, or do anything that doesn't involve studying biochemistry.

On another note, while one pairing in this fic is already set (that being the Ran/Ken, which will appear in time), others are still open. It has been suggested that I should put in some Youji/Omi as a background pairing. I really don't care one way or the other, but I know some people are partial to that pairing, so I thought I'd throw the idea out there and see what people think. Feel free to suggest other pairings as well, although I'll probably disregard them if I think they wouldn't fit into the structure of the story.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there)

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, eventual Youji/Omi

Author's Note: This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 1

(6 years later)

Youji Kudou sat back in his chair and surveyed the quiet man sitting in front of him. He'd had plenty of strange people stop in to see him in his time. It was simply the nature of the work he did. When people needed something done, someone investigated or something retrieved but felt that the matter was too sensitive to bring in higher authorities, Youji Kudou was the man they turned to. He'd had people come to him who were nervous, angry, or arrogantly bossy, but never had he seen anyone as downright silent as the stranger sitting in front of him. So far, the man hadn't even told Youji his name, let alone why he had come to see him. That just served to make Youji all the more curious.

So far, he hadn't prompted the other to state his business, but instead sat quietly and tried to glean any possible information from the stranger's appearance. The man before him was young, perhaps in his early twenties, wearing dark clothes that, while they were certainly not flashy, spoke of good tailoring and fairly expensive fabric. He sat in the chair facing Youji with his back as straight as a steel rod. He kept his violently red hair long in the front, and it framed his pale, oval face. Set in that face were a pair of deep violet eyes that were regarding Youji much the same way Youji was regarding him, only with slightly more hostility. There was also a hint of skepticism in his expression, as if he wasn't sure why he had bothered coming in the first place.

Finally, Youji decided to break the unofficial staring contest he and his strange visitor seemed to have engaged in. "So," he began, "what can I do to help you, Mr. ..." He trailed off, waiting for the man to fill in the gap and provide him with a name.

He was disappointed when the stranger said, "My name isn't important."

Youji's gaze sharpened. Reluctance on the part of a client to divulge his or her name was almost never a good sign. "I would beg to differ, Sir. If you are here to engage my services, I would like to know who I am working for."

"I haven't decided to engage your services yet," the redhead answered back coldly.

"Oh?" Youji said, raising an eyebrow. "Then why are you here?"

"I'm trying to determine if you would be fit for the job."

Youji would not let himself be insulted by the implication that he might not be fit for whatever job the stranger had in mind. It was hardly the first time such an insinuation had been made, after all. "Well," he said, "why don't you tell me a little about this job, and I'll tell you what I think. Then if you decide that I'm fit for the job, you can tell me your name, and if not, you can walk out and I will never speak of this to anyone."

The other man nodded. "That seems fair." Abruptly, he rose and walked over to the desk where Youji was sitting. Reaching into his breast pocket, he pulled out a folded piece of parchment. Unfolding it, he laid it on Youji's desk and then stepped back and watched him.

Slowly, Youji reached out and took the proffered page. As he glanced at it, his eyebrows rose and he let out a whistle. The parchment had on it a neat sketch, probably painstakingly copied from a book by the man in front of him. Precise lines of ink curved and intertwined to form a picture of a hawk and a wolf in battle. Youji recognized it instantly, his job required him to know such things after all, and it only piqued his curiosity.

"It appears to be a crest of some sort," he said, his voice deceptively careless. Eyeing the stranger, who was still standing before his desk watching him, he asked casually, "Do you know who it belongs to?"

"Why don't you tell me?" the man said with a sardonic smile.

"Very well," Youji replied. "I believe it belongs to a man named Reiji Takatori. It appears on the ring he uses to seal his correspondence, as well as a few other personal items of his."

The corners of the man's mouth twitched upwards, and Youji was certain that this stranger had known before he had walked into the building exactly where the picture was from and who it belonged to. He, Youji, seemed to have passed some sort of test, however, for the man began speaking.

"The job I have for you would involve the owner of that seal. Six years ago, he took something from me that is very important, and I mean to get it back. This will naturally involve going against him. If you recognize the seal, you must know something about the man who owns it. If you think you're not cut out for the job, say so now, and I won't trouble you further."

Youji's eyebrows were practically climbing into his hair by this time. "You do realize, don't you, that Takatori is quite powerful."

A flash of annoyance crossed his visitor's face. "Naturally, I realize that," he said peevishly. "I only care if you realize it and if it alters your opinion of the job offered."

"What was it he took from you?" Youji asked.

Violet eyes narrowed dangerously. "That has nothing to do with the question I asked you."

"Listen," Youji said, "what you're asking me to do will almost certainly involve me risking my life. I'm naturally a little hesitant to do that without knowing why."

For a moment, they glared at each other across the desk. Then finally, the stranger bowed his head and said quietly, "My sister. He took my sister."

Normally, Youji tried very hard not to be emotionally affected by any of his clients' problems, but he couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of sorrow as he said, "You do realize, don't you, that she's probably dead then."

The man's head snapped back up and he glared fiercely at the blond. "She's not dead," he growled. "He took her, he didn't kill her."

"But why?" Youji asked. "Kidnapping is hardly his usual style. Usually, if he has a problem with someone, they simply wind up dead."

"I don't know why," the stranger snapped. "Finding that out will be part of your job, if you decide to take it. Are you going to take it?"

There was a note of challenge in his voice, and but Youji met his eyes calmly as he said, "Of course. Never let it be said that I backed down from a job just because of a little danger. Besides, I also have an axe to grind with Takatori. If I take him on now, at least I won't be doing it alone."

"I'll give you one more chance to back out," the redhead said seriously. "Think carefully before you answer. I've tried two other people before I came here, and neither one of them could see the job through. There's still time to walk away now, but if you commit, there's no backing out. If you betray me, even if Takatori decides to let you live, I will not."

If there were a record for how many times a client could manage to surprise him in a meeting, this fellow would surely have been on his way to breaking it, Youji thought. The man was dead serious. Still, Youji had a policy of never letting himself be intimidated by a client, prospective or otherwise. All he said was, "I understand. My answer hasn't changed."

The redhead studied him closely for a moment, as if sizing him up, and then said, "Fine."

"So," Youji said, gesturing back at the chair in front of his desk to indicate that his client should resume his seat, "now that that's been dealt with, why don't you tell me your name."

"Ran," the man said. "It's Ran Fujimiya."

/-/-/-/

"Ken, are you listening to me?"

Ken, who had been staring out the window of the tiny loft he lived in at a pair of children down below, jerked his head abruptly and turned to face the speaker. "Huh? Sorry, what were you saying Kase?"

Kase rolled his eyes. "Really, Ken, you should pay attention when I'm going over plans. Otherwise, you'll screw up when we actually get out there, and who knows what will happen."

Ken bowed his head, lowering his gaze to the bare floorboards. "I know, I'm sorry. I was just... watching the kids."

Kase sighed heavily, looking mildly exasperated. "You've got to get over that. It's been three months already; you can't just mope forever."

"I know!" Ken snapped defensively. "I'm not moping. It's just..." His gaze strayed back out the window to the street below, but the children he had been watching before were gone.

"If you're done," Kase said with a hint of impatience in his voice, "I'll just go over the plans one more time."

"Don't bother," Ken said gloomily, transferring his gaze to the floor again. "I don't want to help this time."

Kase was neither surprised nor bothered by the sudden refusal. He'd been expecting it, actually. Ken always tried to back out of the jobs, only to be talked back into them when he realized that he really didn't have much choice. Ever since losing his position as arms master and trainer three months previously, he had no source of income. Helping Kase carry out his thieving jobs was the only way for him to earn enough money to survive. Ken's misfortune had been Kase's gain; despite being an unlikely candidate for a thief, Ken was actually rather good at it. There was only one little problem that got in the way: his conscience.

"It's not right," Ken insisted. "I'm sure I can find another job soon."

"You've been saying that for the past three months," Kase reminded him.

Ken scowled and looked back out the window.

"Come on, Ken," Kase cajoled. "This is a big one, and I really need your help. Besides, we're just taking stuff from people who are already too rich. No one's going to really get hurt."

"That's what you said last time," Ken said darkly.

Kase winced. The last time they had done one of their little jobs, they hadn't known that the man they were stealing from had decided to employ a few extra guards. In their panic and haste to escape, they'd been forced to kill a few, and that, Kase knew, weighed heavily on Ken's conscience.

"Last time was just a miscalculation," he said easily, dismissing the matter.

"Yeah, well any more miscalculations and you'll be finding yourself a new partner," Ken warned him.

"You don't mean that," Kase said with a laugh. "You wouldn't let me down like that, would you, Ken? We're friends, aren't we? We've been friends forever." He slung an arm around Ken's shoulders and gave him a little shake to emphasize his point.

"Yeah, we are," Ken acknowledged, a small smile crossing his face. "And I won't let you down. But one of these days, I am going to find a real job again."

"'Course you are," Kase said easily. "But in the meantime, we've got a job to do, and it's a big one. We're going after a guy named Takatori, and he's a pretty nasty person to get on the wrong side of, or so I hear. We've got to be careful this time, so listen closely, okay?"

Ken drew himself up out the slouch he'd been sitting in and gave his friend his undivided attention. "Okay," he said. "Let's go over it again."

Tbc...

Author's Notes: Well, the majority of people who actually expressed an opinion on the subject seemed to like Youji/Omi as a secondary pairing, so I'll figure out a way to work it in there.

Just a word of warning: don't expect updates in any sort of set timeframe. When I update depends on a lot of factors, including how fast I write, how fast my beta reader gets things back to me, when I have internet access, etc. I'm going away for a quarter for a special marine biology program, so updates might be rather slow for a while. I apologize for this, but that's the way it's going to be.

Having said that, thanks to all the people who read and/or commented.

diane: Thanks for your comments! I agree, it is great to see lots of Ran/Ken stories pop up, and I hope to contribute my fair share.

The Invisible Fan: I'm glad you think it's interesting so far. Actually, I doubt Ran's guardian can be nearly as hard on him as he is on himself, but that's Ran for you. Yes, most of the others will appear soon, although (much to my beta reader's annoyance) it may be a while before Omi comes in. But he will be there!

HeatherR: I'm glad you approve of your muse's detour. Personally, I don't think Ran would really be Ran if he wasn't at least slightly angsty, so I had to do something to make him so. As for the golden eyes, I was wondering if anyone was going to pick up on that. You seem to be the only one to have picked up on it, or at least to have remarked on it. Thanks for commenting!

keishin: I'm glad you like epics, because that's what this is turning out to be. Thanks for commenting!

Brokn Innocence: I'm glad you liked it. No, I don't want you to get butchered, but if you go around petting Ran, I'm not sure even my posting my chapters in a timely fashion will save you. Thanks for the comments!

NekoAnime: I'm glad you like it so far. Hopefully I'll be able to hold you interest. As good as HeatherR's? Thank you:blushes: And thanks for expressing an opinion on the secondary pairing issue. I think it is going to end up having Youji/Omi as a background pairing.

olivia-yuymaxwell: It might take me a while to get to the Ran/Ken parts, but I will get there eventually, I promise! Thanks for commenting, and for expressing an opinion on the Youji/Omi issue.

Seph Lorraine: Thanks for commenting! Hopefully this chapter explained some things, and probably generated even more questions. But all will be explained in time. Thanks for your input on the pairings issue. I actually did consider Omi/Nagi, since I know it's popular in some circles, but I discarded it for two main reasons. Number one, Omi and Nagi probably aren't going to directly interact much in this story, so it would be hard to set up the pairing, and number two, my beta reader might just lynch me. I hope you can content yourself with the pairings and implied pairings that will be in the story.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there)

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Note: This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 2

The bartender at the White Mare Inn eyed Youji warily as he sat down. Unperturbed, Youji ordered his drink and gave the man a disarming smile. He knew why the fellow was so cautious around him. He and Ran had been heard arguing. Again.

There were times when Youji wondered why he'd chosen the profession he had. The work was fun, but some of the people he had to interact with were less than pleasant. In this case the problem came from Ran. While Youji had to admit that the redhead was not the most unpleasant person he'd ever worked for, he certainly wasn't one of the nicer ones. He wasn't mean so much as particular, and his standards were starting to wear on Youji's nerves.

When he'd taken the job, he'd envisioned himself working alone. That was his usual modus operandi these days, and he'd become accustomed to it. Of course he'd realized that Ran would have to enter the picture, but he had figured that the redhead would only appear for regular progress reports. Not so, as it turned out. He'd failed to realize one very important thing: Ran was a perfectionist. His philosophy in life was that if he wanted something done correctly, he either had to do it himself or supervise.

So here Youji was, a week into the job, and he wanted to bang his head repeatedly against a large, immovable object. It wasn't that Ran was useless or couldn't carry his own weight. He was very good at gathering knowledge in his own field. Put the man in a library, and Youji was sure he could find almost any piece of information one might want to look up. But his methods were rather limited to the straightforward approach, and some of the finer subtleties of human interaction seemed to be lost on him. Also, he had very specific ideas about the way things should or should not be done, and he tried to impose those same standards on Youji, which annoyed the blond to no end. While he understood that the job was very important to Ran for personal reasons, he refused to have someone else tell him how to do his job.

Just that evening, Ran had gotten on his case for being overly friendly with one of the serving girls at the inn they were staying at. He'd given Youji a lecture about separating work from play, and only seemed to get even more angry when Youji had told him that in this case, business and pleasure really were mixed, since serving girls often provided a wealth of information. Ran had rather acidly asked what would stop the same girl from providing information about them later, implying that Youji was indiscrete, and had then reminded Youji that he was only the third person Ran had chosen to employ to help him find his sister, and that the first two had failed. The way he said it made it clear that he expected Youji to meet the same fate, and Youji very much resented that. A shouting match had ensued, during which Ran had called Youji an immoral scoundrel and Youji had called Ran a pompous bastard. Ran had stalked off in a huff to the room they were sharing (Ran was too cheap to get separate rooms for each of them), and Youji was left to nurse his drink and question his sanity.

Had this been a normal case, he would have dropped it long ago. Youji was not a man who was accustomed to letting other people interfere with his work, and he wondered why on earth he was allowing it this time. His common sense told him he should have told Ran to piss off and find someone else several days ago. But on the first night they'd shared a room together, Youji had watched while pretending to sleep as Ran pulled a small bracelet out of his pocket and sat staring at it. After what he'd been told, it hadn't taken much to figure out that the trinket must have belonged to Ran's missing sister, and seeing the sorrow on the man's face as he fingered it made Youji feel a stab of sympathy. It also made him curious about the girl who had owned it. So whenever Ran got on his nerves by acting like an ass, Youji tried to remind himself that even if he disliked his client, there was still the young girl to be considered. He knew from experience that Takatori could be merciless, even to women, and he could not in good conscience just leave a young woman in his clutches, even if he had never met her personally.

'I just hope that if I do ever meet her, she's nothing like her brother,' Youji thought sourly, his thoughts one again returning to the redhead who was probably still sulking in their room.

Ah well, Youji thought as he successfully caught the eye of a barmaid walking past him with a tankard of ale. Let Ran sulk if he wanted to. But for him at least, the night was still young.

/-/-/-/

If there was one thing Ken hated, it was waiting.

This was rather unfortunate, as at the current moment, that was all he had to do. He was supposed to sit still and wait for Kase's signal, which probably wouldn't come for another hour or so yet. Being stuck lying on his stomach in a thicket of bushes was hardly what he would call a pleasant way to spend the evening. To make matters worse, it looked as though it might rain before the night was out. In fact, Kase had deliberately picked a night with heavy cloud cover, since there would be no moonlight through the clouds and therefore less chance of being seen. While Ken agreed with him on an intellectual level, he did not relish the idea of being soaked on an already chilly night.

Cautiously, he shifted his weight until he was lying in a slightly more comfortable position. He moved carefully so that not even the faintest rustling of leaves would betray his presence to anyone who might happen to be passing by. Not that he supposed anyone would be, since he was concealed in the garden of the large manor house, and it was hardly the evening for a romantic stroll through the flowers. Still, it never hurt to be cautious. He couldn't afford to be caught. Quite aside from whatever physical punishment would be meted out to him, he didn't think he could stand the shame. He'd had quite enough of that already, thank you very much.

Ken scowled, not at all pleased with the direction his thoughts were taking. Over the past three months, he had tried very hard to forget or at least ignore what had happened to him, but somehow his mind always drifted back. Back to the way things had been before, when he'd had a job and been respected. Back to when he'd been the arms master and trainer of a well-to-do and respected family. Back to when he'd had students, the two young sons of the house, who'd admired and looked up to him. At least they had before everything had come crashing down.

Of all that he had endured in his life, that was one of the things that hurt the most. To be disgraced and wrongfully accused in front of the two boys he had worked so hard to train. Never would he forget the look of shocked disbelief on their faces when their father had made the accusation. Theft. The thought of it made his lips twist into an ironic little smile. He was now what he had been accused of being then, but at the time the accusation had flabbergasted him. How could anyone think that he would steal from the very family that kept him on and provided him with a job that he loved and two wonderful young students whom he enjoyed mentoring? But his protestations of innocence had fallen on deaf ears. Whoever had actually pilfered the money had been very thorough in making sure that all the evidence pointed to Ken, and nothing he could say seemed to do any good. In consideration of his many years of service, the matter had not been taken to the authorities, but he had been stripped of his job and tossed out to fend for himself.

Ken remembered that day all too well. It had been one of the few times he was actually glad that his parents were already dead. At least they had not been there to see their only son lose his home, his job, his students, and his reputation all in one fell blow. It was his loss of reputation that had hit the hardest in the weeks that followed. Word got about, and no one in the town was willing to provide him with employment. Nor could he leave the town to seek work elsewhere; he hadn't the money to travel. Only Kase had believed his protestations of innocence, and ironically enough, the only job with which Kase could provide him was as a partner in crime.

Ken almost sighed heavily, but caught himself in time and stifled the noise. He supposed he ought to be grateful to Kase, really. The man was his friend, and had stood by him when no one else would. Maybe if this job went well and proved to be as profitable as Kase had made it sound, Ken would finally have the money to leave this place and go somewhere where no one knew him or the accusations made against him. A chance to start over, that was all Ken wanted out of this.

Ken's head snapped up as he jerked himself out of his reverie. He thought he'd seen light for a moment. He waited in silence until he saw it again, three brief flashes of light. Kase's signal. Hoisting himself up as quietly as he could, Ken left his hiding place and loped silently towards the house.

/-/-/-/

Youji was a little disappointed upon stumbling into the room to find that Ran was still awake. The redhead was seated at a small desk, apparently bent on ruining his eyesight by trying to read by the light of a single candle. Violet eyes glanced up at him and narrowed suspiciously.

"Are you drunk?" Ran asked, his tone radiating disapproval.

"Not quite," Youji answered.

The glare intensified. "I don't believe you."

Youji decided he didn't feel like arguing anymore, and so tried to change the subject. "Why are you still up?"

"I'm checking something," Ran muttered, gesturing vaguely to the many sheets of parchment spread out in front of him.

"Checking what?" Youji asked, moving a little closer and peering cautiously over Ran's shoulder.

"A list of possible places that Takatori might be staying. I'm trying to eliminate as many as I can without actually visiting any of them."

Youji rolled his eyes. "For goodness' sake, Ran, can't that wait until morning? It's got to be past midnight already, and you're the one who wanted to make an early start tomorrow."

"An early start won't do us much good if we don't use the time efficiently," Ran said, not looking up from the list he was perusing.

"Well, I for one can't operate efficiently without sleep," Youji retorted.

"Then why the hell do you insist on staying up so late with your conquests?" Ran asked acidly.

"I'm going to bed," Youji announced, neatly avoiding an answer and another argument.

Ran ignored him and continued to read over his list.

/-/-/-/

Ken stared around the large room in amazement. What astonished him wasn't its size or grandeur or expensive furnishings, but the ease with which he'd entered it.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" he asked Kase in a hissed whisper.

"Of course," Kase whispered back gleefully as he fiddled with the various locks and bolts on a small side door leading to the room where the money was supposedly being kept.

"But where are the guards?" Ken asked.

Kase would have rolled his eyes if he could have spared enough concentration to do so. "I told you, they're outside the manor. That's why we got here early, so we could be in place before they took up their watch."

"But how did you know that that would work?"

"Because I've been keeping an eye on this place. It's called planning, Ken, and sometimes it works," Kase answered sarcastically.

"This is going awfully smoothly for something you didn't have much time to plan," Ken observed.

"Look, will you just keep quiet and stop asking me questions?" Kase hissed, sounding both irritated and anxious. "I'll explain the details to you later if you still want me to, but now is not the time!"

Ken fell silent and paced nervously across the room, his eyes darting back and forth between the door to the hallway and the large window through which he and Kase had entered. Kase had told him to keep watch, and for once he had no qualms about obeying orders. Every hair on the back of his neck seemed to be standing on end, and he was jumpy and agitated. Something was wrong, he could feel it.

"Kase, hurry up with that, will you?" he said anxiously.

"Why?" Kase asked, totally unconcerned. "We can afford to take our time; this is easy."

"Too easy," Ken muttered.

"Relax, will you?" Kase asked. "I know you find it hard to believe, but there are actually times when everything comes your way."

"Yeah," Ken replied. "And it usually means I'm about to be run over."

Kase simply concentrated on a particularly stubborn lock, and didn't bother answering.

"Why did you even bring me here?" Ken asked, suppressing a shiver. Something about this job was giving him the creeps. "You obviously don't need my help."

"Nonsense," Kase said encouragingly. "Of course I need your help. I'm counting on you to help get me out of here, and if nothing else, I'll need you to help me carry stuff."

"Great, don't I feel special," Ken muttered sarcastically.

"Look, if you really want to do something, you can grab that medallion type thing over there on the small table," Kase said, gesturing with one hand to a circular object lying on a small writing table by the door. "I noticed it when we came in; it looks pretty valuable."

Ken walked over and picked it up, observing that it did indeed appear to be some sort of medallion. It was roughly palm sized, and appeared to be made of silver with a design on it in gold, although in the dim light in which they worked, he couldn't be absolutely certain. The gold was in what seemed to be two shapes, and holding the item closer to the small dark lantern Kase was using as a source of light, he observed that the pattern was actually of a wolf and a predatory bird of some sort fighting each other. The eyes of the animals glowed red, and he wondered if those were small rubies set into the precious metal.

"What on earth are they doing, leaving something like this just lying around for anyone to find?" Ken wondered.

"Who knows?" Kase answered. "Rich people are always careless with their stuff."

"Not always," Ken murmured vaguely.

Kase didn't answer as at that moment, he managed to get the last of the bolts to come loose. Pulling the door open, he eagerly seized the lantern and held it up to illuminate the contents of the room he'd just finished breaking into. For a moment his breath caught, then he let it out in a little laugh of triumph.

"Look at all this!" he whispered excitedly.

Ken was looking, and his eyes were wide with wonder. Never in his life had he seen so much wealth in one place. Most of it was in the form of gold or coins, but there were also some precious stones as well. Swallowing, he managed to say, "You were right, Kase."

"Of course I was right," Kase said, grinning like a lunatic. "C'mon, help me gather and pack it, will you?"

Ken nodded and moved forward to help his friend stuff their findings into several large, canvas sacks. They had to be careful not to fill the sacks too full, lest the weight cause the bottom to rip out. Finally, when they had all they could carry and the room was almost entirely cleared out, they straightened up and hefted their load up.

"What about this?" Ken asked, holding up the medallion.

For a moment, he thought he saw something glint in Kase's eyes at the sight of it, but dismissed it as a trick of the light. "You hang onto that," Kase said easily. "We can decide what to do with it later when we divide things up."

Ken nodded and stuffed the item into a pocket inside the breast of his coat.

"You remember the rest of the plan?" Kase asked him as they slipped out the window.

Ken nodded. "We split up to reduce the risk of being seen. You go to the east, and I cut through the gardens and scale the wall to the south. My horse should be waiting in the small grove of trees to the west of the road. If all goes well, we'll meet up at our usual spot before sunrise."

Kase nodded and beamed at him. "You're pretty good at remembering stuff once you decide to pay attention."

Ken snorted. "Oh ye of little faith. You be careful, okay? I'll meet up with you later."

Kase nodded and slipped silently into the shadows along the wall of the house. Ken waited a moment until he was sure his friend had gone, then took a deep breath and silently took off through the gardens.

Tbc…

Author's Note: Well, it's a good thing that I have the next several chapters of this already written, because otherwise I wouldn't update for the rest of the quarter. I've been dropped into science boot camp, only it's more fun. But please humor me if updates are slow. And I apologize to the other Ran/Ken authors out there if I haven't been reviewing. It doesn't mean I'm not reading.

keishin: While constructive comments are always welcome, I appreciate that you reviewed at all. I'm glad you like the characterizations, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Thanks for commenting!

HeatherR: I'm glad you're liking the story so far. Yes, this is turning out to be an epic, which worries me just a little. I have written very long stories before, but mostly I stick to oneshots. I'm flattered that you think it's well written, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well. And thanks for your well wishes with the program. It's turning out to be a lot of fun so far, even if it is a lot of work. Thanks for commenting!


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there)

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Note: This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 3

Ken made his way out of the gardens much more slowly than he had entered them. This was partially because he was weighed down with his spoils, although not nearly as weighed down as Kase had been, since he had taken most of the goods. Ken could hardly begrudge him that, however, since he had done most of the work as well. Besides, Ken knew the actual dividing up of their gains would take place later, when both of them had reached their meeting place. If they both reached their meeting place. For some reason, he was still nervous about being caught. The feeling that something was dreadfully wrong would not leave him alone. It had been bothering him ever since he had set foot in the house, but he wasn't sure exactly what was causing it. So far, all he could point to definitely was the feeling that the whole thing had been entirely too easy. He'd only done a few jobs with Kase, but in his limited experience, the ones that generated more income tended to be more difficult. This run, on the other hand, was the easiest one they'd done so far. It didn't add up. Still, he supposed he shouldn't complain. Easy was a good thing, right?

Ken's thought were still running along these lines when he reached the wall that surrounded the house and its gardens. It was not a particularly high wall, it was barely higher than he was, but burdened as he was, he figured that trying to simply jump up, grab the top and hoist himself over wouldn't work as well as it had when he'd entered. So instead, he found himself feeling for minute toeholds on the stones that made up the wall. After a moment, he found an area he was sure he could climb over with reasonable ease. Once he had clambered laboriously to the top of the wall, he swung his legs over and allowed himself to drop down easily on the other side.

He landed right next to a pair of stationed guards.

The nagging feeling he'd had all night was probably the only thing that saved his skin. Because he was already on his guard, he was able to react more quickly than either of the two startled men he'd just landed beside. Almost before they realized what was going on, he was in motion, knocking over the small lantern they were using and zigzagging his way off into the darkness. Behind him he heard startled cries and other voices answering. Great. Just fucking great. Now every guard in the place was going to be on his tail. His only consolation was that Kase would probably encounter few problems.

Over the next several minutes, Ken found that he was in need of consoling thoughts. Though he was fast on his feet, the terrain was not well known to him, and his night vision had suffered from exposure to the guards' lantern and was not as good as it might have been. Several times he stumbled, and a few times he almost fell. Behind him, he could heard shouts and people crashing into things in the dark. Apparently, the guards were also suffering from a lack of night vision, which helped to even the score a little, but not much.

It was with great relief that he reached the grove of trees where his horse was tethered. The bay stallion whinnied in surprise when he came scrambling up to it, but Ken ignored the sound. Ripping the reins off the branch where they had been tied, he didn't even pause to make sure the girth of the saddle was tight before throwing himself into it. Desperately, he kicked at the animal's sides, inducing another startled whinny. The horse broke into a reluctant trot for a moment, then slowed to a walk and stopped altogether. Ken tried to urge the creature on, but it refused to budge. Somehow, between the time he had left the animal with Kase to be tethered here and the time he returned for it, the horse had fallen lame.

Ken barely had time to curse his bad luck before the first of the guards was upon him. A large hand grabbed the back of his coat and pulled, dragging him out of the saddle and hurling him to the ground. The fall momentarily knocked the breath out of him, and he lay still in the dirt for a moment, trying to get his bearings.

"I've got 'im, Sir!" A triumphant voice yelled above him.

"Good!" another voice nearby answered. "Hold the scoundrel there while we bring the light."

Ken panicked. He couldn't let them bring the light; light would allow them to see his face, and then he would be doomed. In desperation, he did the first thing he could think of. Taking one of the bags he carried, he swung it upward with as much force as he could. The man above him let out a pained grunt as the sack collided with his chin, and both man and bag went down. Ken was up and running before either could hit the ground. Later it would occur to him that he had left behind both the horse and a very valuable sack of plunder, but at that moment he didn't care. Technically, the horse was Kase's responsibility anyway, as Ken didn't have enough money to keep a horse, and given a choice between keeping the loot or keeping his freedom and what little was left of his good name, the decision was obvious.

As he ran, he could hear the agitated voices behind him. Apparently, the others had stumbled upon their fallen comrade. Ken wondered briefly how badly he had hurt the man before deciding that he had more important things to worry about at that moment. Not all of his pursuers had stopped to exclaim over the downed man, and he could hear one at least behind him who seemed to be gaining on him. As the man approached him from behind, Ken felt more than saw the blade in his hand. Apparently, his attack had convinced the guards that he was dangerous enough to warrant such measures.

Years of teaching weaponry and even more years of practicing it himself had Ken in the habit of never traveling unarmed. He was grateful for that habit now as he pulled out a long dagger and abruptly spun about to face his opponent. Most would probably have dismissed the knife as useless, but Ken preferred fighting with short blades when he could. A sword one could see coming easily, but a knife could be concealed until the last moment, then unsheathed like a cat's claws. It was perhaps a somewhat devious way to fight, but at that moment Ken had no qualms about employing it. He slashed viciously at his pursuer, cutting a large gash across the man's chest before he turned and hurried on, not bothering to see if his opponent was truly down. So long as the fellow was unable to continue chasing him, he didn't care.

The volume of the shouts behind him was steadily increasing, and to his alarm, he heard the distinct thunk of a projectile of some sort hitting the ground near him. A moment later, something struck the back of his left shoulder, piercing through clothes and flesh and causing him to stagger violently and fall to his knees. Reaching around with his other hand, he pulled out the crossbow bolt that had hit him and tossed it to the side. Stumbling to his feet, he hurried onward, now running not only for his freedom but for his life.

Ken was in trouble, and he knew it. His legs were beginning to burn and he was gasping from all the running he'd done. He could feel the blood from his shoulder wound soaking his shirt and coat, but he dared not stop to bind it. When he'd fled, he'd done so with no thought as to direction, and consequently he had absolutely no clue where he was. All he knew was that there were still men behind him, hunting him, and that if they caught up with him or even managed to get close enough to get in a decent bow shot, he was doomed.

Abruptly, the ground seemed to disappear from under his feet, and he pitched forward, landing on his injured shoulder and rolling down an incline until he hit water with a splash. At first, he couldn't even move after the shock of the cold water hitting him, but then instinct kicked in and he swam to the surface. When he came up gasping for air, he realized what had happened. Somehow, he'd managed to run far enough to reach the river that ran along the edge of the town. This was no mean feat, as the house he'd burgled was set apart from the rest of the town by a good three miles or more, and he seriously doubted that the path he'd taken had been a straight line. Somewhere on the bank above him, he could hear the cries of his pursuers, but none of them seemed to have spotted him in the water yet. Things were starting to look almost manageable again. If he remembered correctly, the place was also upstream from the town, which meant that if he could simply manage to stay afloat, the river would carry him where he needed to go.

Unfortunately, staying afloat was harder than it seemed. It took Ken a minute to realize why. In his adrenaline driven haste, he'd almost completely forgotten about the stolen goods he was carrying. The bags of coins weighed heavily on him now, however, and his already tired body protested the extra weight. Desperate to stay afloat, he loosed the bags one by one and let them sink to the bottom of the river. That done, he concentrated on keeping his head above water while he let the river carry him home.

/-/-/-/

Ran rubbed his eyes as he fought off exhaustion. It was long past the hour when he should have gone to bed, but he refused to do so. He'd tried sleeping before Youji had returned, only to wake up with a nightmare of his sister being taken. He'd had that dream before, and sleep was usually a long time coming after he had it. So he'd decided to try to do something productive with his time. He figured that he needed to be productive because Youji certainly didn't seem to be. It was one of many things about the man that irritated him, but he had to grudgingly admit that he wasn't entirely useless, and Ran would have been hard pressed to find anyone else willing to take on the job.

As he stared at the lists he'd been going over, Ran's vision blurred slightly. Definitely no more reading for the night, he decided. Still, he did not want to go to bed. He had a feeling that sleep would prove just as elusive as it had before, and besides, Youji was snoring slightly. Ran was seriously beginning to think that it might be a reasonable expense to simply get the two of them separate rooms.

Sighing, he pushed his chair back from the desk and stood up. If he wasn't going to read any more for the night and he still couldn't sleep, that left him with precious few options left. The thought of simply sitting in a room with Youji and staring at the wall while the other man slept was not an appealing one. Ran decided that a walk was in order, so he headed towards the door. His movements were quiet, but to his surprise, they still managed to wake his roommate.

"Where are you off to?" Youji muttered sleepily, cracking one green eye open to survey Ran.

"I'm going out for a walk," Ran said.

Youji eyed him for a moment longer, then snorted. "Fine," he said, "just put that candle out before you go."

Obligingly, Ran blew out the single candle he'd been working by and quietly slipped out of the room.

/-/-/-/

By the time Ken reached the rooftop where he usually met with Kase after a job, he was a mess. The water had not done good things for his shoulder wound, which refused to stop bleeding. Every muscle in his body was aching in protest and he was sure he was sporting a few bruises from being thrown to the ground as well. To top off everything else, he was soaking wet. When he'd dragged himself out of the river, he'd been too tired to bother wringing out his clothes, and water still dripped off of him. His hair was still wet and plastered against his head with his bangs constantly falling into his eyes and trying to stick there. Despite the cloud cover, the night was bitterly cold, and it seemed even colder to him, soaked as he was. He couldn't seem to stop shivering. So all and all, he made a rather pathetic sight when he finally managed to find his friend.

Kase was standing with his back to Ken, staring out over the rooftops and into the darkness. He seemed to be contemplating something and hadn't noticed Ken's arrival. When Ken hailed him, he spun around to face him so quickly he nearly lost his footing and fell.

"Ken!" he cried in shock, his face white. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing here?" Ken asked, bewildered. "You told me to meet you here, remember?"

Kase nodded, seeming to regain some of his calm. "I did, but I wasn't expecting to see you back here. I heard the guards going after you; I thought you'd been caught. I thought you were dead!"

Ken gave him a tired but hopefully reassuring smile. "No, it took me a while to lose them, but I got away. Unfortunately, I had to dump most of gold to escape. It's probably sitting at the bottom of the river somewhere right now. Sorry for letting you down."

Kase's face was still pale, but he appeared to be reining in his shock and regaining his composure. "What about the crest?" he asked.

Ken blinked in surprise. "Crest?" he repeated, not understanding what Kase was asking about.

"The medallion," Kase said insistently, taking Ken by one shoulder and shaking him slightly. "Have you still got it?"

Ken couldn't understand why on earth his friend would ask about that, and he was a little disappointed by the question. Shouldn't Kase have asked about his well being first? Still, he dutifully cast his mind back and tried to remember what he had done with the medallion. After a moment, he recalled that he had stuck it in the breast pocket on his coat and not in the bags he had had to drop. "I've still got it," he answered.

"Good."

Something in Kase's voice hardened with the one word, and that was all the warning Ken got before he felt the knife plunge into his side. Ken jerked in shock and shoved Kase away from him, instinctively staggering back to put some distance between them. His mind was in a shocked frenzy. Kase had just stabbed him! Kase, who was his friend, had been his friend for years, had tried to kill him! What the hell was going on?

Ken put a hand to his side, glancing down in astonishment at the blood that welled up through his fingers, then looking back at his supposed friend. "Kase, why?" he whispered.

Kase, in contrast, seemed annoyingly calm. "They have to catch someone," he said simply.

"Why?" Ken repeated, a little more forcefully this time.

Kase tilted his head and regarded him, still with that annoying air of composure. "I suppose," he said thoughtfully, "since you are going to die, you might as well know why. You see, they have to catch at least one of the thieves, otherwise Takatori might be implicated. I told you the money we stole was his, but that wasn't quite true. The house we burgled wasn't his, he just happened to be staying there to collect a debt owed to him by his host. I steal the money, with a little help, of course, his host is humiliated and ruined and has to pay double, then I secretly give Takatori back what's his in exchange for a percentage of the goods and a nice, high rank position. But the scheme only works as long as the hosts don't suspect that Takatori was involved in the theft. In other words, we need a scapegoat. They'll find you, or at least your body, and the crest you stole, and they'll know you must have been the thief, even though none of the goods are found with you. They'll assume you must have hidden the loot before you died, and they'll never find it, and that will be that. In fact, this actually works out better than I had planned. I thought I would have to sacrifice the stuff I sent with you, since I couldn't carry it all myself, but this way, I can just retrieve the bags you left in the river. It all works out beautifully, don't you think?"

Ken was slowly edging away, shaking his head, unable to comprehend what he was hearing. Even as part of his mind was wailing that this couldn't be true, that this was all a horrible nightmare, the logical part of his brain was calling up all sorts of things that had seemed odd at the time, but now made perfect sense. The ease with which they'd entered the house. Of course it was easy, if Kase had inside information. His unfortunate encounter with the guards while taking the escape route Kase had picked for him. His lame horse, which had been left in position by Kase. Kase's insistence that he carry the medallion so that he could be positively identified as the thief, even if he was dead. It all reinforced what Kase was telling him, and yet he still didn't want to believe it.

"What's the matter?" Kase asked mockingly, seeing Ken's wide-eyed denial. "You're always going on about how important friendship, loyalty, and camaraderie are. Now you can live your ideals, or at least die for them. You'll die so that I can go free and enjoy the fruits of my labor."

"Of our labor!" Ken cried indignantly, disgusted beyond words that Kase could see this as a form of camaraderie.

"Our labor?" Kase repeated with a sneer. "You didn't even want to work with me, until I forced you to."

Ken's eyes widened at the implications. "You made me lose my job!" he croaked, unable to control the shaking in his voice.

Kase just shrugged. "Hey, I got money and a competent partner out of the deal. Unfortunately, a reluctant partner, however competent, is no good in the long run. Sooner or later, you would have deserted me, so I'm not really losing anything I wouldn't have lost anyway by doing this."

"Bastard," Ken hissed, his face contorting as shock took a backseat to rage. "Do you have any idea how much that position meant to me?"

"Because of your precious students?" Kase spat back. "I know you like kids, but the fuss you kicked up over the whole thing was really ridiculous. But it doesn't matter now," he said, his face once more assuming that look of strange calm. Only the odd gleam in his eyes betrayed any of his inner thoughts as he strode towards Ken, knife raised.

Desperately, Ken stumbled back away from the man advancing towards him. His cold hands fumbled hastily for his own dagger, and his fingers closed around the hilt just as Kase reached him and struck.

All Ken saw was the flash of the knife as it descended towards him. When it struck his chest, however, instead of sinking in, it was deflected, instead sliding off to cut a long but relatively shallow gash down the lower portion of his chest. Kase barely had time to wonder at his failure before Ken struck back, sinking his dagger into the man's stomach and ripping upward before throwing Kase off of him.

Kase stumbled back, then fell hard upon the rooftop, his eyes wide and fixed disbelievingly on Ken. He opened his mouth, and blood came bubbling out, covering his lips and running down his chin. "Traitor," he managed to choke.

Ken straightened and stared down at the man he'd thought was his friend. "You're the last person who should be calling me a traitor!" he growled.

Kase's blood covered lips twisted into a weird little smile as his body went limp. "Traitors go to hell," he murmured, sounding almost thoughtful. "I guess... I'll see you there." His last breath gurgled slightly as it passed through his lips, and then he lay utterly still, his eyes still open and fixed on Ken.

Ken's knees gave out, and he sat down rather abruptly, dropping his dagger beside him to clatter against the roof. Almost as an afterthought, he reached up to touch the gash on his chest, following it with his fingers until he encountered an object in his coat that had evidently deflected Kase's knife. Pulling it out, he stared in mild surprise at the medallion he'd taken from the house. He'd forgotten about it, but looking at it now, the irony was not lost on him. His life had been saved by the very item Kase had meant to use to damn him.

A drop of water hit him, then another, and he looked up at the sky blankly. The clouds which had been threatening rain all evening had evidently decided to make good on the promise. He looked back down and watched with morbid fascination as little droplets of water spattered over Kase's dead face, splashing against his cheeks and running down from his still open eyes like tears.

It was that last thought that finally seemed to break Ken out of the shocked stupor he'd been in. With a harsh cry, he staggered to his feet and stumbled away from the grisly scene, breaking into a clumsy run as he headed towards the narrow stairs that would take him back to the street. He didn't seem to care that he left a bloody trail behind his as the rain water mingled with the blood from his shoulder, side, and chest. His mind wasn't capable of processing anything, not even pain. All he knew was that he had to get away, and so he reached the street and fled, heedless of his direct. He stumbled along until he could go no further and then collapsed, letting the darkness overtake him.

/-/-/-/

Ran hunched his shoulders against the rain and cursed himself for not thinking about the weather before he'd left. He had no idea how long he'd been out wandering around, but by the time it had started raining, he'd been far enough away from the inn that there was no hope of reaching it before he got drenched. Grudgingly, he'd turned his footsteps back that way anyway, thinking that he at least had dry clothes waiting for him in his room.

He hadn't been in this town very long, since the only reason he had come here was because he'd heard that Takatori would be staying somewhere in the area. Nevertheless, Ran had kept track of the distances he'd covered and the turns he'd made when leaving the inn, and he felt confident enough in his sense of direction to take a few shortcuts back. Nor was he worried about using back alleys; he'd been careful before he left to put on a long coat that did not broadcast his class for everyone to see, and he carried no money on him.

Ran discovered that the only disadvantage to using the narrow alleys was their lack of light as he tripped over something large and unyielding that was sprawled in his path. Cursing, he managed to regain his footing before he landed face first in the mud and kicked half heartedly at the object that had tripped him. It gave slightly under his foot, and he paused, half wondering what it was, half afraid to find out. Finally, curiosity got the better of him, and he knelt down on the dirty ground and reached a hand out for the thing. His fingers met with cloth, coarse and wet. He found a seam and followed it until the cloth abruptly ended and his fingers encountered the unmistakable feel of skin. Ran felt for a moment, then jerked his hand back when he realized that what he'd felt was a human hand.

He'd tripped over a body.

Tbc...

Author's Note: The chapters might start coming more slowly now, since I haven't been writing at all. Actually, that's not true; I've been writing tons, but somehow I don't think anyone wants to read my lab reports and paper critiques.

keishin: I'm glad you enjoyed that chapter. I figure that while Ken can be dense sometime, he's not **that** dense; he would notice something was wrong. But he wouldn't suspect Kase until the very end. I tried to keep it close to the series in that respect. Thanks for commenting!

NekoAnime: I'm glad you liked Youji and Ran bickering. I see those two as not getting along very well until they get to know one another better, since their attitudes towards life are rather different. As for what Kase did or did not do, this chapter should have cleared up any lingering doubts. Thanks for commenting!

HeatherR: I'm glad you liked the chapter! Hopefully Ran and Youji will eventually learn to get along. And Ken trusting Kase is enough to make anyone nervous. But they will all be united soon! Well, relatively soon anyway... Thanks for commenting!


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there)

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, others are still up in the air

Author's Note: This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 4

Ran's initial reaction was to recoil in horror. Jerking his hand back, he leapt to his feet, prepared to leave the body until he could find someone else to handle it. Then he paused as a realization hit him. Because the hand he'd touched had been icy cold, he had automatically assumed that the person was dead, but that might not be the case. It could be that the person was simply dead drunk, he reasoned, and therefore had not felt his kick. Vainly Ran wished that he'd thought to bring a lantern or some source of light with him so that he could see whoever it was and get a better idea of what was going on.

Reaching down once more, Ran located the body easily enough by touch and groped blindly upward, trying to find the person's shoulders. He stopped abruptly when his hand encountered some warm and viscous liquid on the body's side. Even in the dark, he could guess what that was. It felt like the blood was already congealing. Pressing a little harder, Ran felt some more of the liquid spill over his fingers. It was fresh, and the fact that the wound was still bleeding probably meant that the person was still alive.

Grabbing the body under the arms, Ran half lifted and half dragged the form out to where the alley intersected with one of the broader streets. Even there, there wasn't much light, but a few torches and lanterns were still lit, providing him with enough illumination to see the stranger. Light proved that he had found a young man. The man looked very young indeed, with his eyes closed, face very pale, and dark hair matted and plastered to his head. Ran could pick out at least two open wounds on his body just with a cursory inspection, and he wondered what had happened to cause them. A drunken fight, perhaps? But Ran'd had to bend fairly close over the body to move it, and he hadn't smelled any liquor on the man's breath.

Ran stood up and was debating whom he should inform of this to get the young man off of his hands and effectively make him someone else's responsibility, when something in the young man's hand caught his eye. What little light there was glinted off of metal, and Ran knelt again, curious, prying open the stranger's hand to remove the object. When he held it up to see it better, his breath caught in a gasp.

There, in his hand, done up in silver and gold, was the Takatori crest. Ran would have recognized it anywhere; he had spent the last six years of his life obsessing over it. It was the emblem he had painstakingly reconstructed from the small fragment of sealing wax he'd found, the one he'd copied carefully so that he could show it to others. His eyes, wide with shock, took in the wolf and hawk, then jerked back to the carrier of the unexpected find, narrowing in hatred. Takatori. The very name made his blood boil, and this wounded stranger was somehow connected to the man.

Ran knew full well that the man he'd found was not Takatori himself. He was far too young, for one thing. For a moment Ran wondered if he might be one of Takatori's sons, of whom he knew little, save that they existed. But he dismissed that notion quickly. The young man's clothes were not shabby by any means, but they were of a coarse weave and probably homespun. Takatori was a rich man, and Ran couldn't imagine him letting one of his offspring go about so poorly clothed. But if he wasn't Takatori's son, who was the wounded man, and how had he managed to get hold of what was an obviously valuable family item?

Taking the young man by the shoulders, Ran hauled him into a half sitting position. Bracing the stranger against his chest, he shook him vigorously. "Wake up!" he growled.

The man's head lolled listlessly to one side.

Ran shook him a little harder. "Wake up!" he repeated, this time a little more forcefully.

The man's eyelids twitched slightly, but other than that slight sign, he gave no indication of returning to consciousness. Finally, Ran dragged him over to where rain water ran off the eaves of one of the buildings. He stuck the man's face under the flow, and watched with mild satisfaction as his captive sputtered and thrashed weakly. When he was sure the man was at least mostly conscious, he pulled him back out of the stream of water, and hauled him up so that he could look into his face.

"Who are you?" Ran demanded.

The man managed to half open his eyes, lashes parting to reveal dark pupils that looked almost black in the dim light. He fixed his gaze on Ran unblinkingly without really seeming to see him, and Ran felt a stirring of unease. With his eyes half open and slightly glazed over, the man looked almost dead.

"Am I in hell then?" a soft voice whispered. The tone held such resignation that Ran was alarmed. It was almost as if the man wouldn't have cared if Ran had told him that yes, he was indeed in hell.

"No. Not yet," Ran answered quietly. He was tempted to add that he didn't think this young man was going to end up there at all, but for all he knew, that wasn't true.

"Not yet," the young man repeated vaguely. "That's good." His eye slipped closed again and his head lolled to the side, but this time Ran didn't bother to try waking him. He doubted that any attempts he made would have been successful at that point anyway. If he wanted information from this stranger, he was going to have to wait for it.

Ran's gaze strayed back to the crest, and his resolve hardened. Some things were worth waiting for.

/-/-/-/

Youji awoke to the sound of a muffled thump near the door. He sat bolt upright, throwing back the covers, tense and alert. A moment later the noise was repeated, followed by the sound of something fumbling for the handle of the door. For a moment Youji considered how quickly he could get to his weapons, which were lying in a pile along with his clothes for the next day. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of Ran cursing and he sprang out of bed to light a candle and open the door, wondering what on earth had happened to make the redhead so incapacitated that he couldn't open it himself. Was Ran drunk? Try as he might, Youji couldn't picture it. Ran just didn't seem the type.

"There you are," Youji said as he opened the door. "I was wondering when you were going to get ba..." he trailed off, voice dying in his throat as he observed the redhead and the burden he was carrying.

"Would you mind getting out of the doorway?" Ran snapped. "He's rather heavy."

Mutely, Youji stepped aside and observed in silent astonishment as his employer entered the room, staggering slightly under the weight of the unconscious young man on his back. Ran headed straight for Youji's bed, which was still in disarray from his hasty departure from it. Reaching the bed, he proceeded to dump his burden on it.

Youji decided that it was high time for him to speak up. "Who is that, why did you bring him here, and why the hell are you putting him on **my **bed? He's a mess."

Ran, who was bending over the young man, sent an irritated glare in Youji's direction. "I know he's a mess; that's why I brought him here. He's hurt and he needs to have his wounds treated. And I put him in your bed because I actually hope to be able to sleep in mine later. You've already had some sleep."

"Who is he?" Youji persisted.

"No idea," Ran said flatly as he bent over the young man and set to work removing the his boots and coat.

"Do you normally make a habit of picking up random hurt strangers off the street and bringing them into your living quarters for treatment?" Youji asked. "Because if you do, I think it's something I should know about."

"Of course not," Ran answered back. "But we have to get this one well enough to talk."

"Why?" Youji wanted to know.

"He was carrying this," Ran said, straightening long enough to toss something at Youji.

Catching it, Youji held it up to inspect it, his eyebrows climbing rapidly towards his hairline when he saw what it was. "This is Takatori's personal crest," he said.

"I know perfectly well what it is," Ran snapped. "What I want to know is where he got it from, and I can't ask him that until he's better. Now help me out, will you?"

Youji realized that he was gaping, and shut his mouth, moving to help Ran deal with their unexpected guest. Within a few minutes, they had him stripped of his wet clothes and were inspecting the damage, which proved to be more extensive than they'd thought. Ran already knew that the young man sported wounds of some sort on his chest and side, but he hadn't noticed the one on the shoulder until he'd taken off the man's shirt.

Youji's eyes narrowed as he inspected the gash along the young man's chest. He traced the length of it with his finger, following it upwards, and frowned. "Whoever did this meant business," he observed grimly. "He's lucky it missed his heart."

"Someone was trying to kill him," Ran agreed. "And I'll bet it had something to do with that trinket he was carrying." He too frowned, observing that the young man's lips were almost blue with cold. "Do you think it's too late to trouble the staff to ask for warm water and bandages?"

"Leave it to me," Youji said, giving him a tired but confident smile. "Just don't ever tell me again that no good can come from making nice with the chamber maids."

/-/-/-/

Dawn found the Katakura household in chaos and confusion. None of the servants were doing their chores; some of them were out looking around the estate, but most were huddled in groups, wide eyed and excited as they discussed the previous night's events. The few that weren't huddled in the gossip groups, busy murmuring and whispering and exclaiming, were clustered around the door that led to their master's private study, trying as quietly and unobtrusively as possible to listen to what was occurring within. Inside, the head of the household paced agitatedly between his guest and his desk, stuttering and stammering.

"I... I don't know how this could have happened!" he repeated for what must have been at least the fifth time.

His guest, a middle aged man with graying hair and sideburns, surveyed him coldly. "I don't care how it happened, just that it did."

"Please, Lord Takatori," Katakura implored of his guest, "give me a little more time. I'm sure my men will find the thief and recover the stolen goods. Then I can pay back my debt to you in full. The payment is already late, what does it matter now if we add a little more time?"

"Your men," Takatori said scornfully, "are incompetent fools! They practically had the villain in their grasp last night, and they let him escape! I know that you have already asked a few of my own men to look into the subject as well, and you should hope for your sake that they turn something up. As for the debt, I** will** be paid what I am owed, irregardless of whether or not you have recovered the money. I'm sure you'll have enough if you sell off your lands and all your assets."

"But that would ruin me!" Katakura cried, wringing his hands. "You wouldn't be so cruel to one who has shown you hospitality."

"The only reason I was in need of your hospitality was to collect what you owed me," Takatori reminded him. "And if you would pay your debts on time, none of this would have happened."

Katakura looked imploringly towards his guest and opened his mouth, but whatever he had been about to say was cut off by a quick, sharp rap on the door. The person outside did not bother waiting for a reply, and the door opened to admit a man with very neat dark hair and piercing golden eyes partially concealed behind a pair of spectacles. He ignored Katakura completely, moving instead to stand in front of Takatori. He bowed slightly then stood absolutely still, as if waiting for something.

"Well," Takatori snapped impatiently, "what did you find?"

"I have found the thief, my lord," the man replied. "It appears he was in a fight and died of his wounds. I have directed Lord Katakura's men to bring the body if you wish to inspect it yourself."

"What about the money?" Katakura asked anxiously. "The jewels? My family's silver? Have you found them as well?"

The messenger only shook his head silently.

"Then how do you know that the man you found was the thief!" Katakura demanded hotly.

"This was found on his body," the other man said. He walked to the desk and placed a necklace that had a flower pattern done in diamonds on it. "That and the bag the thief left behind last night were all that was recovered."

Katakura picked it up and stared at it dismally. "This is my wife's," he said, sounding like a man condemned to death. "It must have been the thief then. You're sure there was no sign of the rest of the money?"

"None, my lord," the dark haired man said, his voice bland and without sympathy. "It's probable that he had already stashed his gains in some location unknown to us."

Katakura walked slowly to the chair behind the desk and sat down in it heavily. "You're sure there was no sign of it?" he asked, sounding almost pleading. "Did you look everywhere?"

Golden eyes regarded him coolly. "I leave the searching to your men. My appointed task was simply to locate the thief, which I have done. Unless Lord Takatori has further orders, that is all I will do."

"Well, you heard the man," Takatori said, rising from his seat. "His job is finished. I depart at noon tomorrow, and you had better have paid me my due by then, even if you must sell your house and all that is in it."

"But my family!" Katakura cried, springing to his feet again and reaching out desperately to catch Takatori by the arm. "How will I support them? What will I do for a dowry for my daughter?"

Takatori shook his hand off impatiently. "That, sir, is your concern, not mine. Good morning, sir." So saying, he stalked out of the room, the dark haired man falling into step a pace behind him. The servants scattered before him as he flung open the study door and marched out. He paused to rather imperiously survey one of the serving maids who had not been quite quick enough in getting clear. "I'll take breakfast in my room," he told her coldly. "See to it that it is brought immediately."

"Yes, sir," she stammered, curtseying hastily before scurrying away as quickly as she could.

Takatori snorted in disgust and muttered something about meddlesome servants as he strode down the halls to his room. His companion followed silently, saying nothing until they had reached Takatori's room and the door had been shut and bolted behind them. Moving far enough into the room that he was fairly sure no one outside of it could hear them, Takatori demanded quietly, "All right, Crawford, what's really going on?"

"I have good news and bad news," Crawford said, his voice equally quiet.

"What's the good news?"

"I was able to recover some of the money."

Takatori glared at him. "Only some?" he accused.

"That would be part the bad news," Crawford said, reaching up to adjust his spectacles.

"Only part? What's the rest?"

"The thief we found was the wrong one," Crawford told him seriously. "It was the man you engaged for the job, not his partner. We found him dead on a rooftop in the village. He had managed to hide his share of the money, but we found that easily enough. Unfortunately, only about two thirds of the money was there. Presumably, his partner double crossed him and made off with the rest. Still, some is better than none, and at least this fellow won't talk."

"True," Takatori mused, scowling but remaining calm. "And the primary objective has been accomplished. Katakura already compiled all his liquid assets to pay me back; there's no way he can get me the money without selling everything he has left. He and his unfortunate family will make a lovely example of what happens to those who don't pay their debts on time." He seemed to ponder the fate of the family he was about to ruin for a moment, then shook off the thought. "What about the crest?" he asked.

"That's another part of the bad news," Crawford said. "We weren't able to find it."

"What!"

"It wasn't among the items we recovered. Schuldich is looking through the bags a second time as we speak, but I don't anticipate finding it. It was a risk you took when you agreed to let it be used as a mark to identify the thief."

"If it's not with the items you recovered, where do you suppose it is?" Takatori demanded.

Crawford shrugged. "Probably with the nameless, faceless partner who seems to have escaped."

"I want it back," Takatori said. "It's been with the family for generations. If I leave you here, can you and Schuldich find this person?"

"Given enough time, yes," Crawford answered. "But we don't have time. This arrived by courier just a few minutes ago." He reached into his coat and produced a letter, handing it to his employer. "It's from Nagi. Apparently, the girl is being troublesome again. He asks that we return immediately."

Takatori read hastily through the letter, then swore. "Then I suppose we'll have to do just that. Unless I could simply take Schuldich back with me and leave you here to find the missing thief."

Crawford shook his head. "It might not be such a good idea to have Schuldich and Farfarello together without me there to supervise."

"I suppose you're right," Takatori grumbled. "Perhaps I'll send you back to deal with this mess later. In the mean time, we have bigger things to worry about."

/-/-/-/

The ceiling was wrong.

That was the first thought that crossed Ken's mind when he cautiously opened his eyes. He'd spent plenty of sleepless nights shortly after he'd moved into the tiny loft he inhabited staring up at the ceiling, pondering his downfall. He knew every crack and shadow on that ceiling, and the one he was currently looking up at was definitely not the same. Once his tired mind made the connection, he began to wonder just where he was and how he had gotten there.

Abruptly, his memories of the previous night returned, and he was bombarded by a barrage of mental images and sensations. Kase. Gold. Betrayal. Blood. Rain. Tears. Pain. Darkness.

Ken sat up suddenly, then wished he had not as his head spun, pain flared in his shoulder and side, and his vision was eclipsed by bright blotches of color. He closed his eyes and sat perfectly still for a moment, waiting until the ringing in his ears had stopped before cautiously opening his eyes again and looking around.

He was in a fairly good sized room which was furnished with a small writing table, a screen, behind which a wash basin most probably stood, and two beds, one of which he was lying in. The other bed was occupied by another person, of whom all Ken could see was the top of a head. Red hair spilled out from under the blankets, the rest of the person completely hidden by the bedclothes. Presumably, whoever the person was, he or she was asleep. A further inspection of the room revealed that there was, in fact, one more occupant. A tall young man with shoulder length golden-brown hair was stretched out on the floor at the foot of the bed, also asleep. The man looked vaguely uncomfortable, sprawled there without even a pillow, and Ken sympathized. He'd spent a fair share of his nights sleeping on the floor just after he'd lost his job, and he knew how it felt.

Seeing the man on the floor brought up several questions which had been buzzing vaguely in the back of Ken's mind since he'd awakened. Obviously, the man was on the floor because Ken had usurped his bed. But why was Ken there anyway? How had he gotten there? Who were these people he was sharing a room with? Had they brought him there, and if so, why?

And how long had he been there anyway? Looking through the small window of the room, Ken observed that it was light outside. However, since the light was bright and he didn't know which way the window faced, he was unable to determine what time of day it was. For all he knew, it could be early morning or mid afternoon.

A shiver passed through Ken, and looking down, he realized that he had on significantly less clothing than he had the previous night (assuming that it had been the previous night; he had no idea how long he had been asleep). His shirt was gone, and clean bandages were wrapped around most of his chest and side, looping around to encompass his left shoulder. Even his pants had been removed, although they had mercifully been replaced, albeit with a pair that weren't his. The borrowed pair didn't fit him well, they were too tight around the hips and too long in the legs, but they were better than nothing.

Moving cautiously, mindful of his injuries, Ken slid his legs off the bed and slowly stood up. Whatever was going on, he couldn't afford to stay here. He had no idea why he had been brought to this room, but he wasn't sure he wanted to find out. They might have figured out what he had been doing the previous night. They might even have seen him when he and Kase... His mind shied away from the thought. Whatever they had or had not seen, it was probably not a good idea to remain here.

Ken kept his eyes fixed on the man lying on the floor. This stranger was partially blocking his path to the door, and he would have to be quiet if he wanted to slip out unnoticed. He tried to make his way across the room as unobtrusively as possible, but luck was not with him. He managed to step on one of his overlong pant legs and fell rather heavily against the other bed. Cautiously, he glanced at the man on the floor to see if the blunder had managed to wake him up. It hadn't, and he breathed a faint sigh of relief, only to catch his breath again in surprise upon looking back at the bed he'd landed against.

A pair of hard violet eyes regarded him back. Evidently, at least one of his captors was now awake.

Tbc...

Author's Notes: I know its been a long time since I've updated, and I did leave off on kind of a cliff hanger. My excuses are: 1) I've been going crazy with lab reports and finals 2) My beta reader is almost as busy as I am, and 3) My disc died, and it took a while before I could get back to my home computer. Besides, I notice that more people comment when I leave cliff hangers (yes, I know that's evil, but it's true).

The Invisible Fan: Well, now you know whose body it was. I realize that was a totally horrible place to leave off, but I have written more! Thanks for commenting!

kasugai gummie: I know, that was a horrible place to put the chapter break, and I'm sorry for leaving it at that point for so long. I'm glad you like the story so far, and I hope you liked the other things of mine that you read. Thanks for commenting!

NekoAnime: Yes, you were right about Kase. He makes a very convenient villain when it comes to Ken. As for the crest, any questions about that have hopefully been answered. Thanks for commenting!

HeatherR: No, Ran isn't really the type who would just pick up a random stranger and take him back with him. Good thing he had a little extra incentive in this case though. As for Omi, he will appear, though it may be a while. But don't worry, my beta reader is a big Omi fan, and she'll make sure I get him in there eventually. Thanks for commenting!

keishin: I'm glad you liked this chapter. I imagine it was a shock for Ran to trip over a body. Thanks for commenting!


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there)

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Note: This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 5

"And just where do you think you're going?" a deep voice asked him sternly.

Ken gulped. The glare directed at him by those astonishing eyes had him pinned. "I...I have to pee," he stammered. It wasn't a lie; he did have to pee. He'd simply given the escape attempt higher priority than his bladder.

The intensity of the glare lessened slightly, and Ken found it possible to tear his gaze away from the eyes long enough to give their owner a once-over. The man was slender and very pale with bright red hair. Currently, his rather sharp features were set into an expression of mild annoyance.

"You surely don't need my permission, do you?" He eyed where Ken's hands pressed into the mattress to support him with one eyebrow raised slightly.

Ken bristled at that. "I tripped," he said indignantly by way of explanation. With as much dignity as he could muster, he pushed himself up off the bed, only to realize that sudden movements might not be such a good idea. His shoulder protested and the room seemed to tip alarmingly. Standing very still, Ken waited for the spell to pass.

When Ken's vision cleared again, he observed that the redhead had decided to get up. Even fresh out of bed and wearing only a pair of leggings and a rumpled shirt, the man had a rather commanding presence, Ken noted, and remembered the glare that had been aimed at him earlier.

The man walked over to his still sleeping companion on the floor and gave him something between a nudge with his foot and an all out kick. "Kudou, get up," he commanded.

The blond man called Kudou swatted at the offending appendage and rolled over with a grunt. "Go 'way, Ran," he muttered.

"Get up," his partner repeated. "Our guest is awake."

Ken was confused. One the one hand, the man, whose name was Ran if his partner was to be believed, referred to him as a guest. However, the tone with which the word was said made it sound more like an insult. Yet if these men didn't want him here, why the hell had they brought him back?

"What does our guest want?" Kudou asked sleepily, making no move to get up.

"I want to know what the hell I'm doing here," Ken put in, deciding that it was high time he spoke up.

At the sound of an unfamiliar voice, the blond sprang up like a shot. "You're awake," he observed.

"That's what I just said," the redhead snapped irritably.

Kudou ignored him. "How are you feeling?"

Ken considered the question. If he stopped to think about it, he really wasn't feeling all that great. His wounds hurt, and he felt unusually tired. The odd feeling in his head had lessened once he stopped moving, but it wasn't quite gone. Still, Ken wasn't going to tell his captors that. He figured it was better if they didn't know how shaky and unwell he was feeling. Anything to avoid seeming vulnerable. And maybe, just maybe, if their intentions in bringing him here were only to help him, they might let him go if they thought he was no longer in need of their help.

"Better," Ken answered simply, neglecting to say better than what.

"In that case," Ran said, "perhaps you wouldn't mind answering some questions."

Ken did mind; the statement made him wary and alert. An interrogation so soon after his awakening didn't sound promising. It sounded as if these two men knew exactly what he had been up to the night before, or at least had a fair idea. Still, it wouldn't do to give anything away just in case they didn't know. With that thought in mind, Ken decided to try to cut off the questioning before it started. "I think I'm the one who should be asking questions here," he said, trying to sound sure of himself. "You still haven't told me what I'm doing here."

The blond man stretched and smiled benignly at Ken. "I think," he said, "that introductions are in order here. I'm Youji, and this," he gestured to the redhead next to him, "is Ran. He's the one who found you last night and brought you back here."

"Why?" Ken demanded.

Youji raised an eyebrow. "You needed help, obviously."

Ken glared at him suspiciously. "Then what's all this about asking questions?"

Ran opened his mouth and was promptly elbowed in the side by Youji. While he glowered crossly at his companion, Youji went on, "Well, we would like to know a little about who we're helping. Your name would be good, for starters."

Ken considered them. Somehow he doubted that his name was all they wanted to know. They had brought him back for a reason, although he wasn't sure just what that reason might be. Obviously it involved getting information out of him. Ken didn't know which he would rather face, Ran's direct and intimidating questions, or Youji's seemingly innocent and disarming conversation. He also wasn't sure how to answer the question just put to him. Ken really didn't want to give these two strangers his name without knowing their intentions towards him, but they had given him their names, and it would be rude not to respond. Besides, they had only told him their first names, which meant that he wasn't obligated to provide a family name.

"I'm Ken," he said finally.

"Well, Ken," Youji said, "we noticed that you seem to be in a bit of trouble. Care to tell us what's wrong?"

'No, I don't care to tell you,' Ken thought sourly. Trying to explain Kase and his betrayal to two people he had never met before was not an appealing prospect, especially since Ken was trying his hardest not to think about it himself. Looking away, he said, "It's a personal matter."

"Ah." Youji's voice sounded knowing. "So who's the woman?"

"What!" Ken whipped his head back around to stare at the blond man. "What woman?"

Youji shrugged. "You said it was a personal matter, so I assume that means there's a woman involved."

Ken went bright red and shook his head violently, then stopped when he remembered his previous revelation about sudden movement.

Ran snorted. "Does everything with you come down to women, Kudou?" he asked rather acerbically.

"No, not everything," Youji answered simply. He didn't elaborate, but instead turned back to Ken. "So, if there's no woman involved, what on earth happened for you to get into such a nasty scrape?"

"None of your business," Ken answered shortly. His attention was divided between the questions being put to him and the rather odd dizzy feeling that had become more pronounced since his rapid head movements.

"It is our business," Ran said coldly. "We picked you up, we should know what we rescued you from."

"You didn't have to pick me up," Ken pointed out. "I didn't ask you to."

"So you'd rather I left you in the street to die?" Ran asked skeptically.

Ken deflated a little at that. "Look, I'm grateful to you for saving my life," he said, "but that doesn't mean I have to tell you all my personal history." He was suddenly feeling very, very tired. Maybe he could go lay down if they would simply stop asking him questions...

"We're not trying to pry," Youji said soothingly, "but we would like to know what happened. If nothing else, we need to know if we've put ourselves in danger by helping you."

Ken would have answered that, but he was too busy trying to figure out why the world seemed to have lost all its color. His vision consisted of washed out shades of gray, and things seemed to be growing fuzzier. The ringing in his ears was back, and it seemed to grow louder with every passing minute.

Youji paused and surveyed him critically. "Ran," he said, almost conversationally, "please grab him before he faints."

Ken opened his mouth to say that he wasn't going to faint, but nothing came out. He felt someone grab his shoulders and try to steer him, and he had to close his eyes against the movement. When he managed to open them again, he was flat on his back and on the bed once more. Ran and Youji stood one on either side of him, apparently unaware of his return to consciousness. Ken quickly closed his eyes again and listened to them conversing.

"...blood loss," Youji was saying. "He seems to be running a mild fever too. No wonder, after those injuries. We probably should have seen the signs sooner."

"If he wasn't feeling well, he damn well should have said something," Ran grumbled.

"Oh, come on, Ran. With you glowering at him? He's probably already feeling threatened enough. Though I do wonder why he's so jumpy," Youji mused. "It's like there's something going on that we don't know about."

"Of course there is," Ran snorted. "We don't know anything about him as of yet. But I don't care what's going on with him, I just want to know where the hell he got that crest."

"Well, you're doing a shitty job of finding out," Youji pointed out. "Honestly, Ran, didn't anyone ever teach you that intimidation is not the way to get information out of someone? It just makes them clam up."

"Your method doesn't seem to be working any better," Ran shot back. "This is turning out to be a waste of time."

"You're the one who decided to bring him back here," Youji replied. "We could have been out and looking for Takatori already, but instead we're dealing with him. Don't blame me if your planning is ruined, because you're the one who ruined it."

"He had the crest," Ran muttered, half to Youji and half to himself. "If we could just find out where the hell he got it, it would be worth the delay."

Youji sighed. "You're obsessing about that crest. We don't even know that it necessarily connects him to Takatori."

"Where else could he have gotten it?" Ran asked sharply. "He probably works for Takatori and that's how he got hold of it."

Ken bristled at that. He didn't work for Takatori; that was Kase. Kase, who had connived with the bastard to set him up. "I do not!" he cried angrily.

Ken instantly regretted his outburst as two pairs of eyes fixed on him. 'Great going, Hidaka,' he chided himself mentally. 'Open mouth, insert foot. I should have just stayed quiet.'

"So," Youji said, his careless tone belying the intense scrutiny he was subjecting Ken to, "you don't work for Takatori. But you obviously know him."

"Not really," Ken muttered sullenly, wishing he could still pretend to be passed out.

"But you've heard of him," Youji pressed.

Ken shrugged.

Ran seemed to be growing impatient. "Well, have you or haven't you?" he demanded.

"Sure," Ken answered, trying to sound disinterested. "Who hasn't?"

"So then I'm sure you knew that this," Youji held up the medallion that Ken had taken the night before, "is his."

"I didn't know that, actually," Ken answered, which was true. He had assumed that the medallion belonged to whoever owned the house he'd burgled, which, according to Kase, was not Takatori.

"So he didn't give you that crest?" Ran asked sharply.

"No," Ken replied. "I don't know him. I don't even know what he looks like."

"Where did you get it then?" Ran asked skeptically.

Ken hesitated. Up until this point, he'd been able to answer their questions truthfully, which was good, as he hated lying and knew he wasn't very good at it. However, he couldn't tell them that he had gone into a stranger's house and taken it. "I found it," he said at last. It wasn't quite a lie; he simply didn't say where he had found it.

Unfortunately for him, this omission was noted by his captors. "Where did you find it?" Ran demanded.

Ken squirmed uncomfortably under the glare the redhead was giving him. "I found it," he repeated lamely.

Ran's glare increased in intensity, and he opened his mouth to demand again to know where, but Youji interceded. "If you don't remember exactly, that's all right. But if you could show us a general area, that would be helpful."

Ken considered that. Youji had evidently sensed his reluctance and was offering him an escape of sorts. He had a chance to claim ignorance and simply give them hints without telling them exactly where he'd been last night. Maybe, if they took him with them, he could slip away while they were looking. By now, the news of the robbery was probably common knowledge, but hopefully by the time they figured out that he was the thief, he could be gone. It was worth a shot, anyway. Anything was better than staying in the room with the redhead glaring at him.

"Okay," he said. "I'll show you the area."

/-/-/-/

Things never went the way one planned them, Ken reflected. He'd been hoping to escape from his two "hosts" at the earliest possible opportunity, but he hadn't counted on his body betraying him. Ken had fully intended to take Ran and Youji out near the house he had been to the previous night and turn them loose, but as it turned out, he hadn't even made it down the stairs of the inn before he'd nearly passed out again. He almost wished he had fallen fully unconscious. At least then he wouldn't have been awake to endure the humiliation of having Ran and Youji practically carry him back to the room.

Ken had expected them to be angry at having to wait, but they hadn't been. Youji had simply shrugged and said that such things were unavoidable. Even Ran, who was obviously chaffing at the delay, didn't seem inclined to be angry at him. Ken found that a little odd, since the redhead had obviously been irritated with him earlier.

Currently, he was back in bed in the room at the inn. Youji had gone out earlier, saying that he was "going to have a look around." It was now evening, and he had not yet returned, leaving Ken alone with Ran. Ken almost felt sorry for his new roommate, who had had little in the way of company all afternoon, since Youji had been gone and Ken had been asleep. Ran had woken him up for supper, which he had had brought up to the room. They had eaten in silence, neither one particularly hungry. Now Ken was sprawled on his back in bed, trying not to go mad with boredom while Ran sat at the small writing table and looked over papers of some kind.

Abruptly, Ran set the papers down on the table and sat back with a heavy sigh. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, then reached into his breast pocket and pulled out something small and slender. Ken, who had turned his head to watch the other man, squinted at it until he identified the object as a small bracelet. Absently, he appraised the object, noting that it was probably fairly valuable, but that it was slightly too small to fit the wrists of most women he knew.

Ran leaned back in his chair, apparently unaware of Ken's scrutiny. He fingered the bracelet almost reverently, a look of sorrow and longing on his face. Ken's breath caught in his throat. He hadn't thought that someone who was so closed off could look so obviously in pain. It made him feel a stab of pity for the redhead who had so coldly interrogated him earlier. At the same time, he couldn't help but notice that Ran was a very attractive man when he wasn't scowling. Hell, he was probably attractive even when he was, but his glares tended to render the receiver unable to notice such details.

Watching him, Ken remembered Youji's earlier assumption about how most personal problems related somehow to women. In Ran's case at least, that assumption seemed to be correct, and Ken found himself wondering about the woman who could inspire such a forlorn look.

Swallowing once, Ken found his voice. "So who is she?" He wondered if perhaps the past tense would have been more appropriate, but reminded himself that there was no evidence that the female, whoever she was, was dead.

Ran jerked, and his face went from pained to closed off in under a second. "You're awake," he observed, managing to sound surprised and accusing at the same time.

Ken ignored the comment, pulling himself up into a sitting position. "Who is she?" he asked again, nodding at the bracelet.

"No one who concerns you," came the cold answer.

Ken frowned. "No need to get so pissy. I was just asking."

Ran didn't answer, and the two of them sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Ken said almost absently, "She must have awfully small wrists."

Ran shrugged. "Not necessarily. She hasn't worn this since she was twelve."

"Really?" Ken said. "Wow. You've known her that long?"

A half smile flitted across Ran's face, but it was gone so quickly that Ken thought he must have imagined it. "I've known her all her life."

"A childhood friend?" Ken guessed.

Ran shook his head. "My sister."

"Really?" Ken flopped back onto the bed and put his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. "You're lucky, having a sister. All my family is dead." He had no idea why he volunteered that particular piece of information to someone he barely knew. Only that it seemed a fair exchange for what Ran was telling him.

Ran was silent, seeming not to know what to say to that.

"What's her name?" Ken asked at length. He figured he might as well take advantage of what seemed to be a safe subject that Ran seemed willing to talk about.

"Aya," Ran answered after a moment's pause. He seemed to be studying Ken intently.

"Aya, huh? That's a pretty name," Ken remarked.

"A familiar name, perhaps?" Ran asked suggestively. The intensity of his stare had not abated.

"Naw," Ken answered. "I can't say I've met any girls named Aya." He frowned. "Why, do you think I might have met your sister?"

Ran shrugged and waved it away. "It was merely a possibility."

"Yeah, I guess," Ken said. "It seems kind of unlikely though." It puzzled him, in fact. Why would Ran think that Ken might have met his sister? There was no particular reason why he should have. The way Ran fingered the bracelet made him think that she was probably a good distance away, or at least far enough that her brother hadn't seen her in a while. And even supposing that they did happen to be at the same place at the same time, Ken probably wouldn't have interacted with her. If she was like her brother, she was probably way above his class and station. Still, Ran seemed to think that he might recognize her name.

"What does she look like?" Ken asked after a moment's pause. He might have at least seen her.

"She's... pretty," Ran said at length.

Ken's lips quirked into a half smile. "I'll bet she is, if she looks anything like you."

The minute the words came out of his mouth, he could have kicked himself. Shit, he hadn't just said that out loud, had he? Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of verbal editing process that took place somewhere between when the words originated in the brain and when they left the mouth? Somehow, he always seemed to skip that process. Ken could feel a blush slowly moving up his face, and he glanced at Ran nervously to see how the other man had taken the comment.

Ran simply raised an eyebrow and managed to look very mildly confused and disinterested at the same time. Ken winced as the redhead opened his mouth to speak, to chastise him, no doubt, but thankfully whatever Ran had been about to say was cut short as the door to the room was flung open.

Youji strode purposefully into the room, shutting the door noisily behind him. He glanced at Ken briefly, noting, "Ah, you're awake. Excellent." Then he sat down at the foot of the other bed.

"What took you so long?" Ran grumbled.

"I got caught up talking to people," Youji said easily. "I have some news that I think you might be interested in." He focused his attention mostly on Ran, but still flicked occasional glances at Ken, as if prepared to gauge his reaction to whatever he was about to say.

"Well, let's hear it then," Ran demanded impatiently.

"Well," Youji began, obviously pleased to have the full attention of everyone present, "you wouldn't happen to have heard of a man named Kase Kouichiro, would you?"

Ken's face went dead white, and the ringing in his ears began again. Suddenly, it seemed very difficult to breathe. They knew. Youji knew, and he would tell Ran, and then he was doomed. He wasn't just a thief anymore, now he was a murderer as well. They would hang him, and he would go to hell where Kase would be waiting for him...

"So," Youji's voice cut through the background noise in his head, "I take it you have heard of him."

Ken swallowed hard, but was unable to reply.

"Who is he and what does he have to do with anything?" Ran demanded, sounding surly.

"He doesn't have to do with anything anymore," Youji answered gravely. "He's dead. Died in a fight, apparently. Rumor has it that his knife was found with him, and it still had traces of blood on it, meaning that he probably managed to wound his opponent pretty seriously." He turned to study Ken, who was still sitting up in bed, despite feeling as though he were about to pass out. "I take it he was the one who did that to you?" Youji asked, gesturing to the bandages on Ken's chest.

Ken licked his lips nervously and whispered, "He tried to kill me."

"And so you killed him in self-defense," Youji answered easily, nodding in understanding. "Makes perfect sense."

Ken nodded hesitantly. Self-defense. Youji made things sound so simple. He made it sound almost as though Ken hadn't murdered his best friend.

Ran was frowning at both of them. "Why did he want to kill you?" he asked.

"I don't know," Ken murmured hopelessly. Intellectually, he supposed he did know. Monetary gain was the ultimate reason. But his mind still couldn't accept the fact. "I don't know," he repeated, louder this time. "We were supposed to be friends." Supposed to be. Apparently, Kase's definition of friendship was a little different from Ken's.

"Would it have had anything to do with the robbery at Katakura's?" Youji asked.

Ken swallowed hard and forced himself to stay calm, not to panic. He supposed he ought to have been expecting that, but Youji's words still threw him for a loop. "You know about that?" he asked, his voice barely audible.

"What's this?" Ran asked sharply.

"A robbery at a house owned by a nobleman named Katakura," Youji informed him. "Supposedly, he was entertaining a guest to whom he owed a lot of money. However, before the money could be paid over, it was stolen. The thief or thieves escaped. Everyone is talking about it. The man who died, Kase, was assumed to be the thief, but somehow I don't think he was alone." Youji's piercing green eyes fixed on Ken.

"So you do know," Ken muttered hopelessly.

"Some," Youji answered placidly. "I'd like you to tell us the rest."

"Why bother?" Ken asked listlessly. "You seem to know all about it already. I'm surprised you haven't turned me in by now."

"Now why would I do that?" Youji mused. "As far as everyone else is concerned, Kase was the thief. He was wounded while escaping and has paid for his crimes with his life. End of story."

Ken shook his head. "They'll know I was involved. Kase was my only friend; of course they'll connect me with him. And I had a reputation as a thief even before I was one."

Ran was looking at him strangely. "You're being offered a way out, and you ignore it. Are you that eager to be punished?" he asked disbelievingly.

Ken shrugged. "It'd be no less than I deserve."

Ran gave him a sharp look, but fell silent.

"Well," Youji said, "what you feel you ought to do is your decision, but we won't turn you in if you help us."

"Help you with what?" Ken asked without much interest.

"For starters," Youji said, "you can tell us if you got this at Katakura's house." He held up the medallion which had become the source of so many of Ken's troubles.

"Yeah," Ken answered. "I got it there. Kase pointed it out to me. Turns out he was using it to set me up. It was supposed to mark me as the thief when they found my body."

"You got it from that house?" Ran asked sharply. "Then that means that Takatori **was** there!"

"Was would be the operative word, unfortunately," Youji said apologetically. "I just came from the Katakura place, and you can be sure that there are no guests there now. In fact, the family may not be there much longer either."

Ran huffed in disappointment, but Ken sat up a little straighter and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, the Katakura family is practically destitute now," Youji said. "They apparently owed Takatori money, and after the theft occurred, they had to sell everything to pay him back."

Ken's fist clenched. "That's not right," he murmured, more to himself that to either of the other two. "This is all wrong. No one was supposed to get hurt. We were supposed to be stealing from Takatori himself, not from some poor sap who just happened to be on his bad side."

"Was that your plan then?" Youji prodded gently

Ken nodded and suddenly found himself pouring out the whole story. His job, his fall from grace, his partnership with Kase, the last, disastrous theft, and Kase's betrayal. Ran listened on in silence, Youji in sympathy, nodding in all the right places. Parts of the story were painful to tell, but at the same time, it felt good to get some of it off his chest.

"Really," Ken finished, "I don't know much. Kase took care of all the planning for this one, so I guess I'm sort of a waste of your time." He shot a glance at Ran covertly from under his bangs, aiming his last statement at him. Ken knew that Ran had been especially concerned with getting on Takatori's trail as quickly as possible.

Ran regarded him back, his face betraying no emotion. Youji, however, waved away the statement. "Actually, you probably did save us some time, but it doesn't really matter at this point. Takatori's long gone by now, and even if we had gone looking on our own, we wouldn't have found him in time."

"Did you get any information about where he was going?" Ran asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Youji answered. "He seems to have left very suddenly for some reason, but no one I talked to knew why or where he had gone."

Ran made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat and looked as though he wanted to tear his hair out. Ken wondered briefly just why finding Takatori was so important to the redhead, but pushed aside the question. He had more important things to worry about.

"So what are you going to do now?" he asked.

Both of his companions turned to look at him, seeming slightly startled by the question.

"Well," Youji answered finally, "I have a few ideas, but it's really up to Ran. It's his sister we're trying to find, after all."

"His sister?" Ken asked, casting Ran a confused glance. The one the redhead had been talking about earlier? That sister? "What about her?"

"She was taken by Takatori years ago," Ran grumbled, casting an angry look at Youji as if he were not happy with the blond man for letting the purpose of their trip slip.

Ah. That explained Ran's depression and his drive to find Takatori as quickly as possible. "She was taken from here?" Ken asked.

"Not here," Ran replied. "At our estate."

"Then shouldn't you start there?" Ken asked.

Ran glowered at the suggestion, but Youji looked thoughtful. "You know, he has a point. We probably should go there, just to see if there're any hints left."

"The whole thing happened six years ago," Ran snapped. "There's nothing left that could help you."

"Maybe not," Youji conceded. "But we have to do something until the next time Takatori decides to appear in public. Do you have a better idea?"

Ran scowled, but remained silent.

"So, it's settled then," Youji said with satisfaction. "We'll head there as soon as possible."

"What about me?" Ken asked. He knew what to expect, but he had to ask. His usefulness to them, assuming he had ever had any, had been used up, and they would probably simply send him back to do whatever he had done before. Except that he couldn't do that anymore. Kase was gone, and even assuming that Ken wasn't implicated in his death or the theft, he still had nowhere to go and nothing to do. The thought of trying to steal by himself was not only unappealing, but also dangerous. They had gotten into some nasty scrapes with two of them; he wasn't sure he would survive by himself. But he wasn't sure he had any other choice.

Surprisingly, it was not Youji who answered him, but Ran. "If I take you with us, will you assist me in any way possible?"

Youji and Ken both stared at him in surprise. "You're offering to let him come with us?" Youji asked, astonished.

Ran shrugged. "He's a thief," he said simply. "His skills might prove useful when it comes to obtaining information. I'm not above employing illegal methods to get what I need, and I assume you aren't either." He turned to Ken. "Well, what do you say?"

Ken blinked in surprise. Ran's cool appraisal of his usefulness was a little disconcerting, but Ken reminded himself that the redhead barely knew him, and so was more likely to judge him by skill level than personality. Besides, what Ran was offering certainly beat any alternatives he could think of. "All right," he said finally. "Just tell me what you need me to get."

"Excellent," Youji said. "In that case, since you seem inclined to include other people in this, perhaps you wouldn't mind if I brought someone else in as well."

Ran's eyes narrowed. "Who? You never mentioned anything about this before."

Youji gave Ran a disarming smile. "That's because you seemed so hell bent on secrecy and not including anyone else before. But I have a friend who has helped me with information gathering in the past, and I think his skills might prove very helpful on this job."

Ran ran his hand through his hair in a gesture of annoyance. "This is getting out of hand," he muttered.

"Now, now," Youji said, mock scolding him. "You can't play favorites. If you're going to include Ken, you might as well let my friend in too. The more the merrier, right? Besides, if I correctly remember where you said your estate is, his home should be right on our way. That way you can meet him if you like and decide for yourself."

"Fine," Ran conceded. "But he gets told nothing unless I say otherwise, understood?"

"Understood," Youji said. "With your permission then," here he mock bowed to Ran, "I'll just send him a note to let him know we're coming."

"Let him know it may be a little while," Ran warned. "We're not ready to travel just yet." He shot a meaningful look at Ken, who ducked his head in embarrassment. They weren't ready to travel yet because he needed time to recover. He'd managed to slow them down yet again. He peered at Ran through his bangs, wondering if the redhead resented the delay. He didn't seem to.

As Youji sat down at the small writing table, a thought occurred to Ken. "I need to send a note out too," he blurted.

"To whom?" Ran asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously. His hard expression softened slightly, however, as Ken explained, and he finally nodded his agreement.

/-/-/-/

Katakura turned to sadly survey what had once been his house as another cart of furniture rolled past him. He had sold almost everything in his possession, but the money had barely been enough to cover his debts. As a result, he had almost nothing left to keep his family on while he looked for a new dwelling and tried to rebuild his life. Looking at the house and bidding farewell to his former life was difficult, but it was better than facing the tearful faces of his wife and daughter.

"My lord!" The voice of one of his former retainers broke him from his thoughts.

Katakura turned to face the man with a lightly pained smile. "There's no need to address me that way," he reminded. "I'm no one's lord anymore."

The man ignored him and thrust a piece of paper into his hand. "My lord, this just arrived for you. I... uh... took the liberty of reading it before I brought it, since it wasn't sealed. I thought you should see it immediately."

Katakura frowned in puzzlement, but dutifully opened the note and read.

"Katakura,

I am deeply sorry about your recent loss. However, if you look in the river just upstream of Fisherman's Quay, you may find something to alleviate it.

An apologetic well-wisher."

Looking back at the note's deliverer, Katakura asked, "What's all this about?"

"I was wondering the same thing," the man said. "I got together a few of the boys to comb the bottom of the river in the spot mentioned. I think you should come and see what they found."

Although still confused, Katakura allowed himself to be led down to the river, where he saw a few of his former servants soaking wet and hauling a heavy looking cloth sack out of the water. Two such sacks were already laid out on the bank, and one of them had been opened. Katakura gasped in astonishment at the sight of gold coins peaking out through the opening in the top of the sack. Dropping to his knees, he started to sift through the contents of the bag with his fingers. When he came across an emerald bracelet that he recognized as his daughter's, he began to understand.

"The stolen goods," he whispered. "They were here all along."

One of the younger servants, fresh from the river, approached him and said apologetically, "That's all we found, m'lord. There musta been more, but it's not here."

Katakura smiled warmly up at the young man. "That's just fine," he said. "It's enough." He looked at the bags in front of him, measuring their worth. There was plenty to provide his family with food and lodging while giving himself a chance for a fresh start as well. "It's enough," he repeated.

Tbc...

Author's Notes: I profusely apologize for the lateness of this chapter. Chapter 5 was evil and took forever to write, and it turned out way longer than I intended it to. Then my beta reader and I took consecutive vacations, slowing down that part of the process. However, I can assure anyone who cares that Chapter 6 will not be as long in the coming.

And thank you to everyone who commented on the last chapter!

quietladybirman: Hi! I actually did notice that you had me on your alerts list, but it's still nice to hear from you. Don't be sorry about not reviewing earlier; I'm terrible at leaving reviews too. I'm glad you like the story so far. As for the use of canon, I've been trying to keep the characters' histories as close to canon as possible, since I'm a strong believer in the influence of their pasts on their present personalities. However, the storyline itself will probably end up deviating from canon pretty drastically by the end. But that's to be expected in an AU. I worry about Ken to when I read fanfics. I don't know why, but he does seem to invite trouble. Anyway, I'm glad you don't mind waiting for updates, since I can be pretty slow at times. -.-;; Thanks for commenting!

NekoAnime: Yes, I know, another cliff hanger. I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm really not. Anyway, at least this chapter hasn't ended that way. Yes, Takatori is evil. Ran and Youji remind me of brothers too sometimes. The sort who barely speak to each other at times but will still be around when the other needs them. Or maybe I'm just overly sentimental. Anyway, thanks for commenting!

HeatherR: Yes, Ran dragged him home! It would have made for a much shorter story if he hadn't (not to mention killed the pairing, and I can't have that). As for Aya, you'll find out more about her and the trouble she's causing in later chapters. Thanks for commenting!

keishin: I'm glad you don't mind the cliffhanger; I've received death threats before for leaving them in other stories. I'm trying to stick with the series in terms of character history, although the story will start to deviate from that. I'm sorry Aya's so easy to forget about, although she doesn't appear much in the original series, and when she does, she's more of a catalyst for Ran than anything else. But she will appear soon, I promise. Thanks for commenting!

M.E: Bad beta reader, screwing with my comment count! Just for that, no Omi until Chapter 7! Actually he wasn't going to appear until Chapter 7 anyway, but you already knew that. And I do not cling to the "pick on Ken" trend! I don't discriminate; I'll pick on everyone eventually. It's just taking me a while. Anyway, I did find my missing scene, so Omi will be appearing as scheduled.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Chapter 6

Nagi was waiting outside with Farfarello to greet Crawford and Schuldich when they returned to the manor with Takatori. He seemed very relieved to see them.

"I've given up trying to deal with her," he told Crawford as they walked towards the house, Schuldich and Farfarello a pace or two behind them. "She never listens to a word I say anyway."

"That's because she's not **scared** of you," Schuldich informed him condescendingly. "If she were, you might find it easier to deal with her."

Nagi frowned. "Of course she's not scared of me," he said. "I can't do anything to her."

"I'll admit that our employer's insistence that she not be damaged in the least is somewhat hindering," Crawford agreed as they all entered the house and made their way upstairs towards the private rooms.

"Why?" Schuldich asked arrogantly. "I seem to manage just fine. All it takes is a little finesse."

"Well, I obviously don't have your talent, now do I?" Nagi ground out.

Crawford shot Schuldich a look that told him in no uncertain terms to keep his mouth shut. Turning back to Nagi, he asked, "Since threats don't work, did you try cajoling?"

"Yes," Nagi answered disinterestedly. "Though I'm not very good at it. For a while it looked like it might work, until **he** interfered." He paused to send a scathing look in Farfarello's direction. Farfarello merely returned the look with one of his weird little smiles.

Crawford too turned a dark look on his pale companion. "Why do you harass the girl if it does no good?" he demanded.

Farfarello shrugged. "It's something to do," he answered as if he didn't really care. "And the Gods hurt when she cries." He smiled darkly to himself.

"Next time you leave," Nagi said, addressing Crawford, "either ask me to keep an eye on the girl, or on him. Not both of them at the same time."

"What's the matter?" Schuldich taunted. "Are the two of them too much for you?"

Nagi scowled again. He was not in a good mood. Crawford had left him with a task to perform, and the fact that he'd not only been unable to do it, but had also had to send for help, rankled.

"Schuldich, shut up," Crawford commanded firmly, though without malice. He stopped in front of a hardwood door, knocking against it once, more a gesture of habit than an indication that he really cared whether or not the room's occupant wanted to see him. Throwing the door open, Crawford entered a small but well furnished bedroom. The bed was neat and made, and lacy curtains fluttered in a breeze from the open window. A fancy gown was draped over the back of an armchair, ready for later use. There was a small desk on which several books were stacked, some of them open as though they were in the middle of being read. Other than Crawford, however, the room had no occupant.

Crawford turned to face Nagi, who was watching him silently from the hall. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"She hasn't left the house," Nagi answered. "Other than that, she could be anywhere."

"She's supposed to be up here studying," Crawford ground out through clenched teeth.

Nagi gave him an apathetic stare. "I told you I'd given up on her, didn't I?"

They found her a few minutes later sitting in the study. She had been folding some of her study sheets into odd shapes and stacking them on the desk idly. When Crawford entered with the other three at his back, she rose to her feet and turned to face him, a defiant look on her face.

"You're back then," she observed.

"Aya," Crawford said, his voice quiet but warning, "why aren't you upstairs in your room studying?"

Aya Fujimiya threw one of her dark braids behind one shoulder and stuck her chin out. "I want to see my brother," she demanded, ignoring Crawford's question.

"We've been over this," Crawford said, sounding like a man who was losing patience. "You'll see your brother when you've completed your studies, and not a minute sooner."

"Why not?" Aya asked haughtily, her violet eyes flashing. "You've been saying that for years. If you have him, then let me see him."

Crawford gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Schuldich," he ground out, "reason with her, will you?"

"Gladly," Schuldich answered with a feral smile.

Aya took a step back as Schuldich moved towards her. Uncertainty and even a hint of fear flashed through her eyes. "I want to see my brother," she repeated, though this time she sounded less sure of herself.

"Now, now," Schuldich said smoothly, taking her by the shoulders and steering her over to a nearby chair. "Let's just discuss this, shall we?"

Crawford motioned to Nagi and Farfarello, and the three of them left the room, closing the door behind them. Schuldich would handle the situation.

It was odd, Crawford reflected, that he gave over the task with so little protest. Normally he preferred to do things himself so as to ensure that they were done correctly. However, he found himself faced with an almost insurmountable challenge in the form of Aya Fujimiya.

She hadn't been so hard to manage when they'd first brought her back all those years ago. A frightened girl, separated from the only family she'd had, she had been almost too easy to intimidate. Takatori had told them to make sure she studied hard and flawlessly learned the ancient language he'd set her to learn, and they had done so. It was simple.

At least it **had** been simple. But Aya's will had proved to be stronger than they'd anticipated. After the first few weeks, she had begun to question her captivity and refused to study, demanding to be set free. Crawford had tried beating the girl to make her comply, only to be brought up before his employer for it. Takatori was not pleased with his treatment of the girl, insisting that physical punishment would only make her resentful and cause her to deliberately mess up the plan. The fundamental problem was that the plan involved Aya's learning of the language, which could not be accomplished against her will. Aya had realized this, and was quick to use it to her advantage.

In desperation, trying to make the girl cooperate, Takatori had told her that he had her brother captive as well, and that unspeakable things would happen to the boy if she didn't stick to her lessons like a good girl. At first, the plan had seemed brilliant. Frightened of losing the only family she had left, Aya had been quick to cooperate. But the plan had one fatal flaw; they didn't have her brother. He was still at large somewhere, waiting for Takatori to decide if he would be useful or not.

As she'd grown older, Aya had begun to question the fact that in all her time in captivity she had never seen her brother. At first, her tentative requests to see him had been easy enough to push aside, but with age she had grown bolder. Also, she seemed to have figured out that she was too valuable to physically punish.

This last revelation on her part annoyed Crawford the most. Once she'd realized that he couldn't hurt her, she'd lost any respect she'd ever held for him. He had no authority over her anymore; Takatori and his damn orders had effectively stripped him of that. Aya could laugh off or ignore most of what he said to her, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Sometimes he was tempted to hit her as hard as he could, simply to prove to her that he was still capable of hurting her. However, he always reined himself in, knowing that such an action would probably prove counterproductive in the long run. And so she continued to ignore his orders.

Most of his team failed to have better luck with her as well. Nagi especially seemed to have a problem getting her to do as he said, possible because of his youth. Aya was less hostile to him than she was to the others, partly because he was younger than her, and partly because he was not especially hostile towards her. He was apathetic and often silent when in her presence, but he was often like that with other people, so she didn't take it personally.

Farfarello was a slightly different story. Aya was frightened of him, Crawford was sure. Farfarello was just crazy enough to ignore orders and damn the consequences, and Aya knew it. She could never be completely certain that he would heed Takatori's orders not to harm her, and so she stepped cautiously around him, worried about setting him off on her. But while Farfarello could scare her into silence, he could not scare her into submission. Only Schuldich could do that.

When they had first brought Aya back, she had seemed to almost look up to Schuldich. He was older than she was, but much closer to her in age than Crawford was. Those had been the days before Nagi had joined the team, and Aya had desperately wanted a friend close to her own age. Schuldich had red hair like her brother and was only a little older than the boy, and Aya had clung to that. However, it hadn't taken her long to figure out that Schuldich and her brother were nothing alike. Schuldich taunted and annoyed her, and Takatori had asked Crawford to keep the two of them separate after Aya had thrown a few temper tantrums and resorted to throwing her books at the offending redhead.

The ban on their interactions had been lifted, however, as Aya grew more and more obstinate. Oddly enough, Schuldich seemed to be only one who was still able to wield enough power over her to make her do what they wanted. He could use his powers of persuasion in combination with his mental gift to make her docile and complacent. Moreover, Aya seemed to sense that Schuldich had the power to make her not herself, and it frightened her more than anything else they could have done to her. Instead of seeing him as a possible surrogate brother as she had at first, she now regarded him with abject terror. Usually the mere threat of sending him to talk to her was enough to make her back down.

'He ought to be useful for something after all the annoyance he's caused,' Crawford though uncharitably.

The door to the study opened suddenly, and Aya emerged. Her violet eyes were slightly unfocused, and she had an altogether dazed look on her face. Crawford might have found the vacancy of her expression slightly alarming if he hadn't been used to seeing Schuldich's handiwork. As it was, he merely raised an eyebrow at the girl, looked over her shoulder at Schuldich, and demanded, "Well?"

"I'm going to go study now," Aya said flatly to no one in particular.

"Good girl," Schuldich purred, patting her on the head as though she were a puppy. "You do that."

Aya nodded slightly and shuffled off in the general direction of her room.

Schuldich watched her go, his lip curling up in an expression of mild disdain. "I'm beginning to think that girl is more trouble than she's worth," he said.

"I've thought that for years," Crawford admitted. "But that's not our decision to make."

Schuldich shrugged. "Sooner or later even Takatori's got to figure out that he's spending more time trying to make her learn than she's spending actually learning."

"I'll speak to him about it," Crawford said. He rubbed at his temples as if to dispel a headache. This was becoming rather trying, and his options were running thin. Takatori traveled quite a lot, and he liked to take at least two of his team of four with him. Farfarello had been banned from going on such trips, however, after a rather unfortunate incident with a business associate who had managed to irritate the psychotic man. Schuldich needed to be present to keep Aya in line, but leaving Schuldich and Farfarello on their own rarely proved to be a good idea. Left to their own devices, the two of them inevitably caused trouble of some sort. All this left him with a dilemma to solve before Takatori decided to travel again.

'I'll work something out,' he told himself. 'And in the end, it will be worth it.'

Tbc...

Author's Notes: Well, as promised, the wait for Chapter 6 wasn't nearly as long as for Chapter 5. I make no promises about the next one though...

Thanks to the people who reviewed the last chapter!

HeatherR: I'm sorry you had to wait so long for the chapter, but I'm glad you liked it. And he has gotten to Ran a little already, even if Ran would never admit it. Not yet, anyway... Thanks for commenting!

NekoAnime: I've always imagined Ken as being sort of noble at heart and having good intentions, even if things rarely turn out the way he thinks they will. Besides, even if he was just a bit character, I felt a little sorry for Katakura. Everyone seems to be awaiting Omi eagerly; I hope you're not too disappointed that he didn't appear in this chapter. He'll come in soon, I promise! Thanks for commenting!


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Note: This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 7

Ken was seriously beginning to wonder if Ran would run him through with his sword out of sheer annoyance if he asked if they were almost there again. On the one hand, he really did want to know. He was tired and his shoulder and side were aching. Although they had waited for a week to allow him time to heal a bit before traveling, he was not fully recovered, and several hours on horseback made that painfully clear to him. On the other hand, he had already asked several times how close they were, and Ran seemed to be losing patience with him, assuming he'd ever had any patience with Ken in the first place.

Glancing over at Ran, Ken observed that the habitual scowl he had on his face seemed a little deeper than usual. No good asking him then. Looking ahead, he contemplated the figure of Youji, who was riding a little way ahead of them. The man seemed to be sitting almost jauntily in the saddle, and Ken could hear a softly whistled tune drifting back to him. Ken made a disbelieving face. Here he was, tired and in pain, and Youji was **whistling** for goodness sake!

"What have you got to be so damned happy about?" he muttered irritably.

"What was that?" Youji asked, slowing his horse's pace a bit to allow Ken and Ran to catch up to him.

Looking at the man's cheerful countenance, Ken sighed and rephrased his thoughts in a more polite manner. "I said, you seem to be in very good spirits," he said.

"Of course," Youji said grinning at him. "Ran's **finally** letting me do what I should have done from the very beginning of this case. We're almost there, I can finally run things the way I want to, and I'll be back among familiar friends."

"Friends?" Ran asked sharply at the same time that Ken perked up and said, "So we're almost there?"

Ran scowled at Ken, ordering him without words to be silent, then turned back to Youji and said, "You only mentioned bringing in one other person. Why 'friends' plural?"

Youji rolled his eyes, but lost none of his good humor. "It's an expression, Ran. Don't let yourself get all ruffled; I only intend to seek out one person."

"So who is this person you keep talking about?" Ken asked curiously.

"He's a very good friend of mine," Youji answered. "He's a little on the young side, but he's very good at planning things and gathering information, so don't underestimate him." This last part of his remark seemed to be directed at Ran, who was ignoring him after receiving the answer to his inquiry.

"And we've almost reached his house?" Ken put in hopefully.

"Yes, it's less than a mile ahead," Youji said.

"Great!" Ken said with enthusiasm. "Then let's hurry up and get there." So saying, he spurred his horse from a walk to a trot, then to a canter.

"Ken," Ran called ominously, "don't do that. You'll fall off." Considering the young man's injuries, Ran was more than slightly surprised Ken was still on his horse at all.

"Oh, bugger off, Ran," Ken called back belligerently. "I know how to ride a horse."

Watching his companion growing more distant, Ran had a panicked flashback to the last time he'd told someone not to ride so fast only to be ignored. "Ken!" he ordered. "Wait!" He tried to sound commanding, but a note of fear entered his voice. For some reason, over the week or so he'd spent tending to Ken, it had become important to him that no further harm should come to the brunet. Ran justified it by thinking that he didn't want all of his hard work to go to waste, if nothing else.

Ken slowed slightly and glanced back. "Well, hurry up then," he said.

Ran complied and Youji followed suit, and soon the three of them were cantering down the road until they reached a small side road that led through a gate and up to the grounds of a large house. Youji turned and rode through the gate with Ken and Ran close behind him. As they approached the house, he slowed his horse and stopped in a large courtyard. He'd barely hopped out of the saddle when a golden haired youth of about seventeen came running out to meet him.

"Youji!" the boy cried joyfully. "You're back! I was wondering when you would get here!"

"Omi!" Youji answered, catching the teenager in a hug. "Did you get my letter?"

"Yes, yes," Omi answered easily. "My uncle is away at the present, but I've told the household to be ready for you." He looked past Youji to Ran, who was watching Ken clamber laboriously out of the saddle, trying not to put too much weight on his left arm. Ran seemed to be debating whether or not he should offer the other his help and whether Ken would accept it. "These must be the friends you spoke of. Welcome!"

Ken, who had finally made it down to the ground on his own, bowed low, recognizing gentry when he saw them. Ran jumped swiftly down from his horse and followed with a very formal but slightly less deferential bow.

Omi laughed and returned the gesture. "There's no need for such formality, gentlemen," he said, smiling disarmingly. "Youji rarely bothers with such things around me, and I expect that you'll soon learn to ignore them too."

Ken blinked slightly in surprise, but straightened obediently and gave Omi a hesitant smile. Ran, however, surveyed the boy critically as if sizing him up. If Omi noticed the scrutiny, he didn't let it bother him.

"Please come inside," he offered warmly. "The grooms will see to your horses," he added, seeing how Ken cast a doubtful glance at Omi and then at the horse. He was used to seeing to his horse himself and found it odd to even think of going in before the animal was cared for. However, he surrendered the reigns to one of the stable hands easily enough and followed the others inside the massive house.

"I suppose introductions are in order," Omi said as he led them through a large entryway and up a set of stairs. "I'm Omi Tsukiyono, as you've probably already heard from Youji. I live here with my uncle on his estate and help him manage things."

"Ran Fujimiya," Ran introduced himself curtly.

"Ah." Omi turned around and walked backwards down a long hallway so that he could face Ran as he spoke to him. "Fujimiya, huh? Your family owns land a couple of days travel to the north of here, do they not?"

"That's right," Ran confirmed.

"I'd heard that your estate was currently under the care of a steward," Omi said with a slight frown.

Ran nodded. "The guardian who took care of me after my parents died looks after things while I'm away."

"I see," Omi said politely. Then he turned to Ken. "And you are?"

"Ken Hidaka," Ken said, "but you won't have heard of me."

Omi gave him an apologetic smile. "You're right, but I should like to hear all about you now that we've met." His smile now held a tentative offer of friendship, and Ken returned it with a bright grin of his own, deciding that he liked this Omi Tsukiyono. It had been a long time since anyone had been that friendly with him, and there was something so disarmingly sweet about Omi that invited friendship and confidence. At least it did until Ken remembered how his and Kase's friendship had begun. He frowned slightly, and thought that maybe he was being a little too hasty in his decision. Better to stand back and observe the young man first.

Looking to his right, Ken noticed that Ran was still observing Omi critically, but that his gaze now held a hint of surprise and calculation. Omi must have noticed the redhead's odd appraisal of him by now, but he still gave no sign. Ken had to admire him for that. If Ran had looked at him like that, Ken felt sure he would have found himself fidgeting uncontrollably.

Possibly, Omi was slightly unnerved by the scrutiny of his guest, for upon reaching the end of the hall, he was quick to point out the guest rooms that had been prepared for them. "You must be tired from the trip, and I assume that you'll want to bathe and such before anything else," Omi said, gesturing vaguely to the rooms. "Someone should bring your things up soon. I'll be in the library if you would care to join me. If not, I'll see you at dinner." After ascertaining that all three of them wanted to rest a little, he politely took his leave and trotted off down the hall again, presumably to the library he had mentioned earlier.

Ken paid the boy little attention after the rooms were pointed out. The prospects of a bath and a bed were calling to him, and he found it hard to resist. Hastily excusing himself from his traveling companions, he ducked inside one of the guest rooms and shut the door.

/-/-/-/

After ridding himself of the dust accumulated in traveling in the bath, Ran felt much better. He even considered digging one of his rather battered books out of his luggage and reading, something he hadn't had the leisure to do much of late. However, Ran saw no reason to bother rereading one of the few books he had considered worth taking with him when there was an entire library at his disposal. Since bathing, Ran felt that he was once again fit to interact with other humans, and was just going to seek out the library and his host when there was a knock at his door.

The knock startled Ran slightly, but he was even more surprised when, upon his calling out permission to enter, the door opened and Ken stuck his head in. Ran had fully expected that the other young man would be napping and would not be seen until dinner.

"Hey," the brunet said.

Ran raised an eyebrow at him. "Did you want something?"

"Not really," Ken said with a shrug. "Just bored."

"You should talk to Youji," Ran said disinterestedly, knowing full well that being around him could be as boring as being alone a times.

"I can't find him," Ken said.

"Did you try his room?"

"That's just it, I can't find his room," Ken explained. "I looked at the rest of the rooms in this hall, and the only ones that are occupied are yours and mine."

"He's probably in the library with our host," Ran said, not particularly inclined to worry one way or the other about Youji's whereabouts. "You could try going there."

Ken just shrugged. "I don't really want to. I'm kind of tired."

"Then why don't you take a nap?"

"Because I'm bored."

Ran frowned; the statement made no sense to him, but apparently it worked according to Ken's logic.

Ken shifted slightly and asked, "Can I come in?"

Realizing that the brunet was still standing in the doorway, Ran nodded. Ken accepted the invitation and came into the room, flopping down on Ran's bed. Ran raised an eyebrow at this behavior, but didn't comment. He saw no reason why Ken should want to sprawl on his bed when the other man had his own in the next room. Still, it wasn't as though Ran had been planning to sleep there anytime soon, so he let it pass.

Ken's voice abruptly cut into his thoughts. "So what do you think of him?"

"Omi, you mean?"

Ken nodded, turning his head to watch Ran with lethargic brown eyes.

Ran considered the question. "He certainly seems to know things that I wouldn't have expected him to," he said at last.

"Like what?"

"Like about my estate."

"Really?" Ken asked, sounding mildly curious. "I thought all you nobility types made it your business to know what's going on with other nobility types. Is it really surprising that he knows about you?"

"It's not surprising that he recognized my name or knew where my property was," Ran explained. "What's unusual is that he knew that I wasn't very involved there. It's not exactly common knowledge to anyone outside the immediate area that I have someone else running things. I'm surprised he found out about it."

"So then you agree with Youji?" Ken asked.

"That he's good at information gathering? Perhaps. I'll need to wait and see about that." Ran surveyed the young man sprawled lazily on his bed and asked, "What do you think about him?"

Ken yawned and shrugged. "I think he's nice."

"Just that?" Ran asked, arching an eyebrow in skepticism.

"Hey, that counts for a lot, you know," Ken defended himself. "Of course, I've been wrong about people being nice before, so who knows." His face darkened, and Ran guessed that he was thinking about Kase.

"I'm inclined to agree with you," Ran said. "He seems nice. But what I need to know is if he's competent."

Ken gave him a hard look for a moment, then snorted softly and turned his head to gaze at the wall opposite Ran.

"What?" Ran demanded.

"I didn't say anything," Ken responded, not looking back.

"No, but you're thinking something, I can tell."

Ken shifted slightly and fixed his gaze on the ceiling. "That's all that matters to you, isn't it? How useful people are." Ken's voice was listless, sounding more resigned than accusing. "Don't you ever think that they might have value as people, not as tools?"

"Of course I do," Ran answered, frowning at him.

"It doesn't seem like it sometimes," Ken said. "I mean, the only reason you let me come along was because you thought I could be useful to you."

Ran squirmed slightly at that, not knowing how to answer. Truthfully, he had offered to let Ken come with them more out of sympathy for his plight than anything else. His explanation of Ken's usefulness had been concocted more to satisfy Youji's curiosity than because that was his main reason. Still, Ran didn't want to tell Ken that; he had a feeling that Ken would think that he had acted out of pity and resent it.

"That wasn't the only reason," Ran said finally.

"Could'a fooled me," Ken mumbled, closing his eyes.

Ran sat gazing at the wall for a minute or two, trying to think what to say to that. Ken had plenty of worth as a person; his parting gift to Katakura demonstrated that. Ran had written the note for him, since Ken had still been confined to bed, and it had given him a chance to appreciate first hand what the young man was doing. Ken could just as easily have taken the money and run off, as Youji and Ran had assured him that they would never tell anyone what he had done. However, Ran wasn't sure that the idea had even occurred to Ken once he'd heard about the ruination of the Katakura family.

He turned back to Ken, intent on saying he knew not what, but found that the other man had fallen asleep. His head was still turned slightly towards Ran, and his mouth had dropped slightly open. Ran observed him for a moment, then went quietly over to his luggage and rummaged around until he found one of his books. Settling himself into a chair, Ran began to read, allowing himself to be lulled into a sense of tranquility by the sound of another person's breathing.

Ah well, he told himself. He hadn't really wanted to go to the library anyway.

/-/-/-/

Youji draped himself lazily over one of the more comfortable armchairs in the library as he watched Omi dart about in between the shelves, looking for a book that only he could have located. The boy moved behind some shelves and out of his line of sight for a few minutes, and Youji considered getting up and following him, but decided against it. His earlier bath had left him feeling rather lethargic, and he didn't want to leave his comfortable perch in one of the few chairs in the library that had not been designed specifically for the purpose of torturing people's backs. Besides, he was sure that if he waited long enough, Omi would eventually find whatever he was looking for and join him.

Sure enough, a moment later Omi reappeared with a large book tucked under one arm and drew one of the uncomfortable chairs over to sit near his friend. Youji winced in sympathy at the choice of seating and considered offering to share his perch with Omi, but felt that that might be teasing the boy a bit much. That wouldn't be fair, not when Omi was being so patient with him.

"Sorry I took so long," Omi said, smiling apologetically at him. "I wanted to get out my book on genealogy, but it hadn't been put back in its proper place."

"That's okay," Youji said waving away the apology. "I could have helped you look, but I didn't."

Omi opened the book gently, handling it reverently as though it might fall apart if he weren't careful, which, considering the age of some of the books in the library, was a possibility. "You know, I was a little surprised when you wrote to me about possibly joining in on a case so long after you'd already accepted it," Omi said, studying Youji rather than the book that lay open in his lap. "Usually, I know if I'm in or out nearer the start."

"Sorry about that," Youji said. "Most of that was Ran being stupid. I'd have asked you to join us a long time ago, if it'd been up to me, but he was being stubborn about letting other people in for some reason."

"Interesting," Omi remarked, a thoughtful look upon his face. "I wonder why. What exactly is the case about?"

Youji squirmed uncomfortably. "I can't tell you yet," he said meeting Omi's gaze apologetically. "When and how much you get told is up to Ran. I promised him it would be that way."

"That's all right." Omi smiled at him reassuringly. "I'll just try to get Ran to tell me about it at dinner then."

Youji frowned. "I really am sorry, Omi," he said. "It's not that I don't trust you..."

"It's fine," Omi said easily, waving the apology away with a lazy gesture. "I know you don't have as much freedom in this as you would like. But enough about the case. How have you been?"

"Omi, it's been less than a month since you last saw me," Youji reminded him with a smile.

"So? A lot can happen in a month."

"That's very true," Youji murmured, half to himself.

Omi closed the book and leaned over to take one of Youji's hands. "How have you really been, Youji? Is everything going okay?"

"I'm doing well," Youji reassured. He studied their clasped hands with a distant gaze. "I suppose as long as I'm here, you'll want to discuss other things as well, huh?" he said, giving Omi a slightly rueful smile.

But Omi simply shook his head. "There's no need, unless you want to. I already told you I'm patient."

Youji gave the hand in his a quick squeeze. "Thanks."

/-/-/-/

Ran had to wake Ken up for dinner, and the brunet was still yawning when they reached the dinning room. He blinked blearily around, and then caught sight of Youji, who was already seated next to Omi at the table.

"Hey, what happened to you?" Ken wanted to know. "You vanished this afternoon, and I couldn't even find your room."

Youji laughed a little sheepishly. "Oops. I guess I forgot to mention that since I've stayed here before, I already have a guest room that I'm accustomed to, one that happens to not be in the same wing of the house as yours are."

Ken blinked. "Oh." He tilted his head, trying to wake up enough to process the new information. "I guess that makes sense."

Ran cast a glance at Youji, then at Omi, then back at Youji. "Do you stay here often?" he asked.

"Often enough," Youji answered cryptically.

Ran frowned, sensing that there was something there he wasn't being told.

"We work together a fair amount, and it's often easier if he just stays here," Omi put in by way of explanation.

"Ran, quit interrogating them and sit down already," Ken said. He had already settled into the seat directly across the table from Omi. Reluctantly, Ran settled in to the last seat at the table with a place setting laid out, next to Ken and across from Youji. He noted that the place at the head of the table had been left conspicuously empty, and surmised that that must be where Omi's uncle sat when he was at home.

"I don't mind," Omi said easily. "Actually, I fully expect to be interrogated before the night's done. How else can he decide if I'm fit for the job?"

Ran didn't bother to mention that his mind had already been mostly made up on that score. The boy had already demonstrated that he was bright enough, and Youji, who did his job and did it well according to the sources Ran had consulted before hiring him, seemed to think rather highly of this golden haired youth. Omi seemed perfectly capable of getting along with everyone else in the group, which would hopefully eliminate any possibility of arguments. This was something to consider, as Ran had quite enough of that just dealing with Youji.

Ran was brought out of his musings as the servants came in and began to lay down the first course. He and the others murmured a polite thanks to their host before they began eating. Ken, he noted, attacked the food voraciously. Ran supposed that was a good sign, since it meant his appetite must have returned. When they'd first found him, the brunet hadn't seemed all that interested in eating.

Dinner progressed uneventfully for the most part. Ran found himself engaging in a discussion on philosophy with Omi while Youji watched and occasionally interjected comments and Ken concentrated on eating, ignoring the rest of them. It wasn't until the dessert was being served that Ran finally decided to broach the subject of his search for his sister.

"Youji tells me that you've helped him in several other cases of his," Ran started off.

Omi simply nodded and picked up his glass to take a sip, but Ken perked up and sat up a little straighter in his seat, curious to see what would transpire.

"What exactly do you do when you work with him?" Ran asked, although he already had a fairly good idea as to what the answer would be.

"Mostly I act as a researcher," Omi said, setting down his cup and giving Ran his full attention. "I look into family and personal histories, as well as past events. Basically anything Youji thinks might be useful. For instance, if he was trying to locate a person, I could look into that person's past and come up with any possible friends or family members he might ask for information. Doubtless Youji could find them without my help, but it speeds things up a bit."

Ran nodded. "So are you good at actually tracking down people?"

Omi shrugged. "I can come up with a list of places they might be pretty easily. I'd say that when Youji and I work together, we nearly always succeed in finding who we're after." It was said simply, a statement of truth rather than a boast.

Ran appraised the boy a moment longer before nodding decisively. "I think," he stated coolly, "that we may be in need of your assistance. You see, I'm trying to locate someone who was kidnapped years ago. I know who she was kidnapped by, but unfortunately, I have no way of tracking that person down so that I may find her."

Omi frowned thoughtfully. "I seem to remember hearing that you had a sister who vanished quite suddenly. Is she the one you're trying to locate?"

"She is," Ran acknowledged, unwillingly impressed by the boy's ability to pick up random information about people.

"Then who do you suspect of taking her?"

"A rather prominent member of the nobility whom I'm sure you've heard of," Ran said. "A man named Takatori."

Omi's face abruptly went completely blank. In a flat, cool voice, he said, "I'm afraid that I may not be able to help you then."

"What?" The explosion of surprise came not only from Ran, but from Youji as well. The blond man stared at his younger friend in astonishment. "Why not? You've never turned down a job of this sort before."

Omi winced slightly but replied, "I don't think it would be a good idea. In fact, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want me to help you anyway."

"And why is that?" Youji asked skeptically.

"Because," Omi said, looking him straight in the eye, "Reiji Takatori is my father."

Tbc...

Author's Notes: Yes, I know, bad 'Zel-chan. I left another cliff hanger. It seems to be a habit of mine...

Thanks to the people who commented on the last chapter

NekoAnime: I'm glad you weren't too disappointed by the lack of Omi. He's in the story now, at least. I figured I had to put in a little bit of what's happening with Aya, since the goings on with her and Schwarz will become important later on. I feel kind of sorry for Nagi too; he never stood a chance. Thanks for commenting!

HeatherR: Yes, Aya's being stubborn and willful. And you seem to be the only one to have picked up on the bit about her mother (except my beta reader, who doesn't really count because she already knows almost the entire plot). Hopefully I will manage to fulfill your craving for cute Ran/Ken-ness. I shall do my best! Thanks for commenting!

RosefaerietaleRed: Yes, Aya's feisty. If she's anything like her brother, I can't picture her taking all this lying down. I'm glad you like what you've read so far. Thanks for commenting!


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Note: This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 8

For a few moments following Omi's confession, utter silence dominated the dinner table. It was broken abruptly by Ran, who leapt to his feet so quickly that his chair toppled over backwards. His face had gone even paler than its customary shade, and there was murder in his violet eyes. "You're a Takatori?" he demanded, his voice a low and threatening hiss.

Omi turned his gaze from Youji to Ran. He seemed slightly frightened by the sudden transformation in his guest, but he met Ran's eyes unwaveringly as he answered, "Yes, I'm a Takatori."

Ken rose to his feet as well, his eyes darting back and forth between Omi and Ran uncertainly. "Ran, I don't think-" he started, but was cut off abruptly as Ran lunged forward, seemingly intent on attacking his young host even across the table. Omi let out a startled cry and shot up from his seat, backing a few paces away from the table, a gesture that proved to be unnecessary as Ken flung himself on Ran, grabbing his arm and hauling him back away from the boy.

"Cut it out, Ran!" Ken hollered. "Just 'cause he says he's a Takatori doesn't mean he's the one you're looking for."

"He knew about my sister!" Ran yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Omi. "Of course he knew that she was missing, the villain, if he was one of the ones who took her!"

"No!" Omi cried, looking shocked. "I had heard that your sister was gone, but I swear, I had no idea who had taken her!"

Youji had also risen to his feet in the excitement and took a step forward, interposing himself slightly between Ran and Omi. "Ran, be reasonable," he said. "Aya was taken six years ago; Omi would have been far too young then to have had anything to do with it."

"Liar!" Ran shouted, and lunged again, nearly managing to pull himself out of Ken's grasp. Ken responded by moving behind him, grabbing Ran around the chest, digging his feet into the floor and holding on for dear life.

Omi's face was pale from shock at the violence of the anger directed against him. "No," he whispered. "I didn't. I knew nothing about it."

"Of course you didn't," Youji said. "Ran, listen, do you know why Omi lives with his uncle? Because his mother took him away from his father when he was about five or six, and they came to live here for their own safety. He's had no dealings with the man since then, so it doesn't matter who his father is! Do you hear me, it doesn't matter!" Youji turned to Omi. "Omi, tell him it doesn't matter."

Omi just looked back at him with sad eyes. "He seems to think it matters," he said softly.

"You're damn right it matters!" Ran snapped. "That family is evil!" He made to move forward again, but Ken held firm.

"Ran, get a grip!" Ken yelled. "You can't kill our host!"

Ran, apparently seeing some sense in what Ken was saying, subsided, but the fury in his eyes remained as potent as before. Ken cautiously released him, remaining tense and ready to grab him again if he showed any further signs of attacking Omi. However, Ran simply straightened his clothing, gave a rather malevolent glare to everyone in the room, and stalked off. Youji visibly relaxed, while Omi simply stared after his guest, eyes wide and nervous.

"Don't worry," Ken said, trying to smile encouragingly at Omi, "I'm sure he'll get over it." So saying, he too turned and ran after Ran.

Once they were gone, Omi took a few shaky steps forward and practically collapsed into his chair. He seemed to curl in on himself, his legs drawing up slightly and his head bowing down. Youji watched the display in silence, not sure of what to say.

"I'm sorry," Omi said softly.

"You didn't tell me," Youji said flatly. His tone was not especially accusatory, but Omi flinched anyway.

"I know. I'm sorry. I was afraid of how you'd take it. I know you don't like him."

"You're really his son," Youji said, a hint of wonder in the words as if even now, he couldn't quite believe it.

"Yes," Omi answered, "I am. But I didn't lie to you! Not really!" Omi protested, looking up and fixing pleading eyes on Youji. "You have to believe me, Youji; everything I told you about my father and how I came to live here was true. I just didn't tell you his name. I thought you'd hold it against me."

Youji sighed heavily, any anger he might have felt about the omission dying when faced with those sad blue eyes. "Who knows, I might have," he admitted. "But I'd like to think I'm better than that. Do you even know your father at all?"

Omi shook his head. "I barely remember him; I was very young when we left, and of course, I've been forbidden to have contact with him since then."

Youji moved forward to where Omi was sitting, slipping an arm around the boy's shoulders. Omi shook beneath his hand as the boy threw both arms around his waist and buried his face in Youji's shirt. "What I told Ran was true then," Youji said softly, moving his other hand down to rest on Omi's head. "It really doesn't matter."

Omi made no answer, simply squeezing Youji tighter.

"It's all right," Youji said softly. "I forgive you for not telling me. But for goodness sake, Omi, next time you can think of some important life history fact that might get you into trouble, tell me about it, okay?"

Omi nodded fervently. "I will," he said, his voice muffled by the cloth of Youji's shirt, "I promise."

/-/-/-/

"Ran!" Ken called, half jogging down the hall in an effort to catch up with the redhead. "Ran, wait up!"

Ran didn't even turn his head to acknowledge his pursuer, and his pace did not alter in the slightest. He continued down the hall with the same lengthy strides, ignoring the fact that Ken was trying to catch up to him.

"Damn it, Ran!" Ken yelled as he quickened his pace. He finally reached the other man and grabbed him by the shoulder to hold him in range. "I asked you to wait!"

Ran shook himself out of Ken's grasp with more violence than was necessary and continued on his way. "And I didn't wait," he said coldly. "That should tell you that I don't want to talk to you right now."

Ken, however, refused to be put off so easily. "Look, I know you're pissed about the whole Omi Takatori thing," he said, walking quickly to keep up. "But maybe you just need to calm down and think about the stuff Youji said. Omi's what, seventeen, eighteen at most? That means he would have been eleven or twelve when Aya disappeared. Kids that young don't get involved in kidnapping people!"

"So he didn't find out about it until later," Ran snapped. "That doesn't mean he's not involved."

"But Youji said he hasn't talked to his father since he was a little kid!" Ken shot back.

"And Youji can believe that if he wants to," Ran scoffed. "I certainly don't."

"You're just prejudiced against the name, admit it," Ken said, scowling at his companion. "Just because he happens to be a Takatori, you think that must mean he's an evil and bad person-"

"Yes, I think that!" Ran hissed, whirling around to confront his pursuer. "And I should think you would too, after what that man did to you!"

Ken swallowed hard, faced with both those angry violet eyes and the reminder of what had happened to him. He still refused to give up ground however, saying instead, "It wasn't Omi who did that to me. Mostly, it was Kase more than anyone. I'll bet Omi was here the whole time and had nothing to do with it."

"Why are you defending him!" Ran demanded furiously.

"Why are you so down on him?" Ken shot back. "Just shut up and think for a minute, Ran. If Omi really was in league with his father, do you think he'd have told you about it? Why not just let you keep thinking he has no connection to Takatori, offer to help, and then just keep leading you in the wrong direction? If he really is evil, he'd come along to screw up your plans, not try to back out of them."

Ran tried to find a flaw in Ken's logic, but when no immediate rebuttal presented itself, he growled in frustrated annoyance and whirled around, continuing on his way. Ken scowled, but started after him again.

"You know I'm right," Ken persisted. "You just need to calm down and-"

But he was cut off again as Ran stopped and whirled around to face him so quickly that Ken almost ran into him. "No!" Ran snapped. "What I need is for you to stop following me and trying to force your idiotic idea onto me! You know nothing about Takatori and what happened to Aya, nothing! So stop pretending you do! Why should I listen to you anyway? If you had any real sense, you would have figured out that Kase was deceiving you the entire time, so don't you dare come to me with solutions to my problems when you can't even figure out your own!"

For a moment, Ken went absolutely still. His eyes reflected something that looked a lot like pain, although in the dim lighting of the hallway, it was difficult to tell. Then his expression became one of hurt resentment, and he said, "When you do find your sister, I just hope she doesn't mind how much of a jerk you've become."

Ran snorted and continued stalking off down the hall. Part of him was pleased to note that Ken made no move to follow him this time. The rest of him, however, took it as an ominous sign. Not having the young man at his elbow nagging him to be reasonable made him feel almost as though he'd killed his own conscience. He quickly shook that idea off; that was ridiculous. After all, if he truly had killed his conscience, there should have been no way he could feel so ashamed of himself.

/-/-/-/

Ken waited until he could no longer see Ran before following, trailing silently down the hallway to his room. For the first time since Omi had made the arrangements, he was sorry that his room was right next to Ran's. He didn't especially want to run into the redhead just then.

Fortunately for him, Ran must have gone straight to his room and stayed there, for Ken saw no sign of him as he quietly slipped into his own room. For that at least, he was grateful. Ran's parting comment had stung more than he cared to admit. He'd been spending most of his time trying not to think about Kase and what had happened, but sometimes he still caught himself wallowing in guilt over the whole thing. And then Ran had to come along and point out that, yes, Ken had trusted Kase, even against his better judgment, as if Ken hadn't already agonized over that a hundred times. Damn the man and his penchant for stating the obvious!

'I already know I'm an idiot,' Ken thought sourly as he threw himself down on his bed. 'He doesn't have to remind me.'

Sighing heavily, he lay staring at the wall, lost in thought. Sleep was a very long time in coming.

/-/-/-/

Breakfast the next morning was a rather tense little gathering. Omi seemed rather out of sorts, avoiding even looking at Ran, let alone speaking to him. Youji tried to keep up a conversation with everyone, but his efforts seemed strained and cautious. Ken was sullen, rarely taking his eyes off his plate. He clearly was not speaking to Ran, and Ran wasn't speaking to anybody. Even the servants seemed to sense that something was not right and they served the food as quickly as possible, seeming only too happy to fade into the background once they were done.

It wasn't until the end of the meal that Ran, deigning to acknowledge that there were other people in the room with him at last, announced, in a stiffly formal voice, "I believe that we have imposed upon your hospitality too much. We shall be leaving tomorrow morning after breakfast."

Although the notification was addressed to Omi, it served as an announcement to the other two as well. Ken finally took his eyes off his plate to shoot Ran an unhappy look, and Youji stared at his employer in astonishment as he demanded, "What?"

"You heard me," Ran snapped.

"You didn't tell me about this," Youji said, glaring at Ran with irritation. "A little notice would be nice."

"I'm telling you now," Ran said angrily. "You have plenty of notice. Surely you can have all your things packed and be ready to leave by tomorrow. It's not as if you've had much time to unpack."

"But why leave so soon?" Youji demanded.

"Why stay?" Ran shot back. "Your friend turned down the offer I extended to him; we have no further reason to stay here."

"He turned you down because you threw a temper tantrum," Youji said scathingly.

Ran's eye twitched dangerously. "I did not have a temper tantrum," he growled.

"Oh? What would you call it then?"

Ran made a snarling noise in his throat, but didn't seem able to come up with a satisfactory answer to that. "That's not the point," he snapped. "He refused the offer before he told me his family name. Either way, he's not coming with us, so we should leave."

"Just like that, huh?" Youji said.

"Yes," Ran snapped impatiently. "So if you still want to work with me, I suggest you start packing. That goes for you too," he added sharply, casting a glance at Ken. The brunet simply sent him a look that made Ran suspect that if Ken didn't consider such things to be too immature, he'd have stuck his tongue out at the redhead.

Turning to his young host, Ran gave a very stiff bow. "Thank you for your hospitality," he said, sounding almost as though he were choking on the words. "It's a pity you're unable to help us." So saying, he turned on his heal and stalked out of the room. This time, no one made any move to follow him. Instead the other three simply watched him go with somber eyes.

Tbc...

Author's Notes: Well, the quarter starts day after tomorrow, so updates may begin to come slowly again. I'm really sorry for anyone who's waiting for quick updates.

And, of course, thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!

NekoAnime: I'm glad you liked this chapter. Yes, Ken does get some special privileges when it comes to Ran. And as for what Omi's being patient about, all will be revealed later. I know I seem to be very bad about leaving cliffhangers. I'm not sure if this chapter's ending counts as one or not. Not really, I suppose. But no, Ran doesn't handle things well. In fact, my beta reader used the term "psychotic episode" to describe Ran's little temper tantrum. Thanks for commenting!

RosefaerietaleRed: Omi certainly knows how to handle himself in formal situations. Whether he's good with Ran or not is questionable, given the events of this chapter. Thanks for commenting!

M-chan­: Um... thanks! I try to update quickly, but my muse is unfortunately fickle and easily distracted. Thanks for commenting!

SilverRayne: I'm glad you like the story so far. Thanks for commenting!

HeatherR: Yes, I am evil, for I leave cliffhangers. I'm glad you liked the scene with Ran and Ken. I'm usually not very good at writing fluffy interaction scenes. I prefer to write people arguing, as sad as that sounds. I guess it's because I like writing dialogue. Thanks for commenting!


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Note: I know it's been a while since I've worked on this. Last quarter was quite a bit more hectic than I'd anticipated. "I can take another GE class with writing credit," I thought. "It'll be easy," I thought. Yeah, that was really stupid. Hopefully this quarter won't be as bad.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 9

Later that morning, Omi, who had holed himself up in his room in the hopes of avoiding any more confrontations, was surprised to hear a knock at the door. He was not so surprised, however, to see Youji standing in the hall when he opened the door. If anyone was going to seek him out, it would be Youji.

"I thought you had to pack," Omi said even as he moved aside to admit his friend.

Youji waved that away. "That won't take too long. I've got plenty of time to do that later, but right now I need to talk to you."

"What about?" Omi asked as he ushered Youji into a chair and then moved to perch on his bed, facing the man.

"About that job offer," Youji said seriously.

Omi stared at him in surprise. "Job offer?" he repeated dumbly.

"Yes," Youji said. "I think you should come with us."

"But Youji!" Omi protested. "I can't! There is no 'job offer' anymore; Ran will kill me if I try to interfere."

"That's what he wants you to think," Youji said, smiling even in the face of Omi's distress. "But I've been around him for a while now; his bark's much worse than his bite. He definitely doesn't like the fact that you're a Takatori, but I doubt he'd take it to the level of actually attacking you."

Omi frowned, remembering dinner the previous evening. "I'm not so sure. He seemed pretty unhappy the other night. And even if he wouldn't attempt violence against me, he still won't let me come with you."

Youji too frowned. He gazed thoughtfully at the floor and appeared to be considering something. Finally he raised his eyes back to his host and said, "Omi, why did you tell him about your family name? Does it really matter so much to you if you help to hunt down your own father, even after the way he treated you?"

Omi squirmed uncomfortably at the question, not liking to be reminded of his father, but after a minute he answered it. "I suppose I don't really like the idea of going after my father, but I could do it. At this point, he's almost just like any other man to me; I can't really remember much. But I thought that an employer should be alerted to any potential conflict, which is why I told Ran."

"And it blew up in your face," Youji said, not without sympathy. "But that's just Ran being a fool. He doesn't seem to realize something important."

"What's that?" Omi asked.

Youji leaned forward intently. "He's too stubborn to admit that we need your help. I need your help. I've been working with him for a little over two weeks now, and I still have absolutely no clue where to find his sister. Worse, half the time I can't even find her abductor. We've had one brush with Takatori so far, and all we got out of it was another traveling companion. I'm not used to working with Ran; I'm used to working with you, and I know that you're capable of finding out things I'd never even think to look for. I need a partner on this one, and you're the only person I trust to back me up. Please, Omi? For me?"

Omi stared into beseeching green eyes for a moment before he had to look away. Part of him wondered if Youji was being slightly manipulative, but he didn't dwell on the thought. Youji was asking him for help, and Omi had promised himself that he wouldn't let the other man down. Still, he had to protest, "But what about Ran? I'd like to help you, really I would, but it's kind of up to your employer, isn't it?"

"It is," Youji agreed seriously, "but we can get around that. I was rather worried you would turn me down first. Family loyalty and all that."

Omi shook his head. "You should know better than that, Youji. After all, you know almost as much about my sordid family history as I do."

"Well, I'm glad that won't be a problem," Youji said, his mood seeming to have brightened considerably with Omi's acceptance of the task. "Now all we have to do is convince Ran that it's a good idea."

Omi snorted softly. "You say it as if it's easy," he muttered.

Youji, however, refused to be discouraged. "But it is," he said. "Or at least it's not as hard as you think it is. See, Ran's also tried working alone, and it didn't get him anywhere. He many not be willing to acknowledge that he needs your help to find his sister, but even he has to admit that he needs help of some kind. I'll simply threaten to deprive him of that help if he doesn't agree to let you come with us."

Omi frowned. "I'm not sure I understand."

"Solidarity is the key," Youji said. "If all the rest of us agree that it's a good idea, Ran will be outnumbered and will have to agree to take you on, or else risk losing all the rest of his help and wind up working alone again."

"I don't know, Youji," Omi said doubtfully. "Ran seems like the determined type. Do you really think that that will bother him so much?"

"Oh, I think it will," Youji said confidently. "So really, we only need to do one thing to convince Ran."

"And that is?" Omi asked skeptically.

"Convince Ken."

/-/-/-/

Knocking on Ken's door elicited a cautious call of "Who's there?" muffled by the panel of wood between them.

"It's me," Youji answered. "Well, us, I should say. Omi and me."

The door opened a crack, and Ken peered around it. Seeing only the two of them, he opened the door fully and stepped back to admit them. "I thought you might be Ran," was all he said by way of explaining his odd and almost hostile behavior.

"Is there some particular reason you're avoiding Ran right now?" Youji asked as he and Omi entered the room and shut the door quietly behind them.

Ken directed a rather angry look at the floor. "I don't want to talk to him right now," he said darkly, not bothering to say why.

"Well, that's not good," Youji said, "because we were hoping we could get you to speak to him for us."

"About what?" Ken asked as he moved over to the bed and sat down on it.

"About allowing Omi to assist me on this job."

Ken, who had pulled a sack out from under the bed and was stuffing what few spare clothes he had into it, paused. "You're nuts," he declared.

"Hear me out," Youji said. "We need Omi's help to find his sister, take my word for it. Ran's too stubborn to see that, but we do. So unless you want to spend your time traipsing all over the country to no end, you might want to help us."

"It's not like I've got anything better to do," Ken said with a shrug. "But I guess finding this Aya girl would be a good thing."

"Of course it would," Youji said. "And the best way to do that is to have Omi join us."

"If you say so," Ken said, without much interest.

"I do say so," Youji said. "Besides, wouldn't the extra company be nice?"

Ken looked past him to where Omi was standing quietly by the door, letting Youji finesse his way through this one. "Yeah, it would," Ken acknowledged.

"Well, then you just have to convince Ran of that. He wants to find his sister, and the only way that's likely to happen is if Omi joins us. You can work with that."

"You want **me** to convince him?" Ken asked in disbelief.

"Well, yes," Youji said. "I think you'll have the best chance of doing so. He already knows I want to take Omi along, since I was the one who suggested it in the first place, and if he sees that you agree with me, he'll know he's outnumbered and agree to let Omi take the job. After all, I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to go back to searching alone."

"But he's already given you his answer," Ken said.

"I'm hoping that I can change his mind," Youji answered. "Or rather, I'm hoping you can."

"I don't know why you're asking me," Ken said bitterly. "Ran won't listen to me. He thinks I'm too stupid to talk to."

Youji frowned, wondering what exactly had transpired between the two and what Ran had said to make Ken speak so resentfully. Still, Youji was fairly certain that if anyone stood a chance of convincing Ran to let go of his grudge against Omi, it was the brunet sitting in front of him packing sullenly. He was the only one Ran couldn't accuse of having a prior agenda. That and he didn't have Youji's history of annoying his employer. "You stand at least as good a chance of convincing him as I do," Youji told Ken. "One of us is going to have to win him over.

Ken snorted. "We're doomed."

"Now, don't say that. Think positive."

Omi stepped forward and joined the conversation at last. "Maybe I should try talking to him instead. I really do want to help Youji out on this one, and I think you have the best chance of convincing Ran to let me, but if you really don't want to..." he trailed off, a sad and dejected look entering his eyes.

Ken took one look at Omi's face and knew he was sunk. "I didn't say that," he protested. "I'm just not sure he'll listen is all. But I'll try if you want me to."

"Really?" Omi brightened. "Thanks Ken."

Youji tried to hide a smirk. Really, Omi was too good at getting people to do what he wanted them to sometimes. The fact that Ken, who hadn't known the boy all that long, had already succumbed to his powers of persuasion spoke volumes about Omi's abilities.

"Well, we'll just leave you to it then," Youji said brightly. "Hopefully you'll find an opportunity to speak to him before dinner tonight. Good luck."

"Thanks," Ken said dourly. "I think I'll need it."

/-/-/-/

Ran scowled gloomily at the shirt he was folding. Packing shouldn't have taken him long, considering he hadn't had much time to unpack, but he was going slowly while he contemplated his situation in general. He knew that both of his traveling companions were displeased with him and their sudden departure. Actually, that wasn't all they were displeased with him for. Youji was indignant with him on Omi's behalf, and Ken... Ken was rightfully angry because of what Ran had said the previous evening.

While Ran was still irritated that Ken would presume to tell him his business when it came to Omi, he did have to admit, after some consideration, that he might have been a tad harsh with his words to Ken. Once he'd calmed down enough to lose some of his righteous indignation, he couldn't seem to shake the image of Ken's hurt eyes boring into him and striking through to his conscience. It had been a horrible thing he'd said to Ken, each word measured and calculated to hurt. At the time, that was what he'd been aiming for, hurting Ken enough that he would leave him alone.

Now, however, he wondered if he hadn't gone a little too far. Ken's attitude towards him that morning suggested that he had. And really, Ken was right to be angry, since his comment hadn't really been justified. He didn't think Ken was stupid, and he couldn't fault him for letting Kase get the better of him. Trust and loyalty, the very qualities that had led to Ken's downfall, were not bad things. They had simply been directed at the wrong person.

Ran set the shirt down with a heavy sigh. It seemed his conscience wasn't going to leave him alone for this one until he'd gone and apologized to Ken and gotten back in his good graces. Though really, he thought, irritated with himself for giving in so easily, it shouldn't matter if Ken was angry with him. People had been angry with him before and he hadn't let it bother him. But Ken was his companion now, and he and Youji were likely to be the only company Ran had for the next two or three days. Ran imagined making the trip back to his estate in an atmosphere similar to the one at breakfast that morning and shuddered. No, that would definitely not be pleasant. Something would have to be done about that.

With that justification firmly in mind, Ran got up and went next door to seek out Ken.

/-/-/-/

"Are you sure this will work?" Youji whispered.

"It had better," Omi answered just as softly. "The whole thing was your idea, after all."

"But will we really be able to hear him leave from in here?" Youji asked. "I haven't heard anything so far. What if we're outside the wrong room?"

"We're not," Omi answered back in a low hiss. "Trust me to know the ways of my own house, will you?"

"But how do you know Ken's still in there?" Youji asked.

"Because I can hear him moving around. Or at least I could before you started talking!"

Youji, who could hear the irritation in that whisper, wisely shut up. Omi was right, it had been his idea to spy on Ken to make sure he carried out the task they had given him. Given his irritation with Ran, Youji wasn't sure that Ken would talk to him as they had asked. And Omi, who had grown up in this house and knew all of its passages and doors like the back of his hand, had mentioned that they could listen to whatever was happening in Ken's room from a secret corridor which connected to the room by means of a panel in the wall.

When Youji had decided to hide in the corridor with Omi, however, he hadn't envisioned it being quite so narrow. The two of them were currently scrunched together, Omi standing pressed against the panel of wood that formed the secret door to Ken's room, and Youji pressed against Omi, since being taller allowed him to put his ear to the door above Omi's head. It wasn't too unpleasant, but he had to remind himself not to lean too hard lest he push the door open and spill them both into Ken's room. Somehow, he didn't think that Ken would appreciate knowing what they were doing.

"Has he left the room yet?" Youji whispered, deciding to chance Omi's wrath by speaking after several minutes of standing in silence. That was what they were waiting for, for Ken to leave his room to go talk to Ran. Then, the plan was to move along the corridor to Ran's room, which Omi assured him was also connected to this passage. So far, Ken hadn't done anything, which simply confirmed Youji's fear that Ken was going to chicken out and not try to convince Ran. Omi, however, kept insisting that Ken was simply putting off the task and would eventually get around to it. Youji wished that he would just hurry up and get on with it. While he didn't mind being in close quarters with Omi, there wasn't enough room to sit down, and his legs were getting stiff.

"Not yet," Omi hissed back. "Be patient."

Youji sighed heavily and let his chin drop to rest against Omi's hair. He exhaled another sigh to show his displeasure, ruffling the golden strands. Waiting was getting boring.

Just when Youji was about to say the hell with it and go somewhere where he could sit down, there came the sound of a knock at Ken's door.

"Who is it?" Ken called.

Even with the two doors separating them, Youji could still make out Ran's voice saying, "It's me. May I come in?"

Ken let out a very heavy sigh, rather like that of a man being led to the gallows. "Yeah, sure," he replied, not sounding very enthusiastic about the idea.

There was the sound of a door opening and closing softly, then footsteps padded lightly into the room. There was a pause, and then the sound of Ran clearing his throat. "How's the packing coming?" he asked.

"Okay, I guess," Ken answered, still in the same dull voice.

"Good," Ran said, and then there was silence again.

'Come on, Ken!' Youji thought. 'Now's your chance!'

After a moment or two had passed, Ken asked tentatively, "Was that all you wanted?"

Another pause, and then, "No actually," Ran said. "I... wanted to apologize for my behavior last night. I had no right to say what I did, and I'm sorry."

"Okay," Ken said, after considering this for a moment. "Apology accepted, I guess."

"You still sound unhappy with me," Ran observed.

"Have you said sorry to Omi yet?" Ken asked, and Youji mentally applauded him.

"We're back to that, are we?" Ran asked, sounding sour.

"Youji says you need his help to find your sister, you just won't admit it," Ken said.

Ran exhaled through his noise in an annoyed fashion. "I don't need you or Youji to tell me how to conduct my business."

"But you need Youji to help you find your sister, and I think he's not going to do it unless he has Omi to help him," Ken said.

"Wonderful!" Ran spat. "So you're saying that if I refuse help from this slip of a boy, I lose my other detective. I suppose you'll desert on me too, seeing as how you're so unhappy with me about my prejudice against his family, as you call it."

'Yes!' Youji thought. 'C'mon Ken! Tell him you'll leave too! Solidarity!'

"No," Ken said after a moment's pause. "I'll still go with you if you want me to."

Youji felt like banging his head against the wood panel in front of him. Damn it, Ken was ruining the plan! How the hell were they supposed to convince Ran if they didn't all act together? Youji opened his mouth to rail against the brunet, but Omi, hearing his inhalation of breath, elbowed him hard in the gut. The air Youji had just brought into his lungs so that he could speak abruptly went rushing back out again

"You will?" Ran actually sounded surprised.

"Yeah," Ken said, an almost shy note in his voice. "If you want me to. But I probably wouldn't be much help. I'm not a detective or anything like Youji is. If Youji says you need Omi's help, you should listen to him. He's probably right."

Ran seemed not to have heard any of the last part of Ken's statement. "I thought you were angry with me because of what I said," he said. "And yet you tell me you'd still accompany me even though you think I'm acting like a fool."

"I am mad at you," Ken admitted. "You were really mean last night, both to me and to Omi. But you let me come with you instead of tossing me out on my own or turning me in. That's got to count for something."

Ran was silent, apparently not knowing what to say to that.

"I still think you're being stupid about the whole thing with Omi, though," Ken added. "And I'm still mad at you."

There was another long pause. Then Ran asked, "Do you really think it would be better to take him along than to try to go on as we have been, with just the three of us?"

"I don't know," Ken admitted. "So far you guys haven't done much looking because I've been slowing you down. How long had you and Youji been looking before you found me?"

"The two of us? About a week. Before that I searched on my own for years."

"Well, think how much faster it'll go with four people," Ken said.

"That's assuming Omi would actually help us," Ran retorted. "We are talking about his father here."

"He said he wanted to help," Ken said. "Just ask him, and I'm sure he'll agree."

"Ken," Ran said seriously, "I'm not sure it's a good idea to ask for help from anyone associated in any way with that evil man."

"Why not?" Ken asked. "You let me come along, and I was sort of associated with him through Kase."

"That's different," Ran growled. "Takatori is his father."

"And Kase was my best friend," Ken replied. "Omi probably wasn't as close to his father as me and Kase were to each other. And Kase turned out pretty wicked too. You don't hold that against me, do you?"

"No," Ran admitted, sounding almost reluctant. Youji grinned; it seemed Ran could see where Ken was going with this line of reasoning.

"Well then," Ken said reasonably, "you've got no reason to resent Omi."

"I suppose not," Ran said grudgingly.

"Then you'll ask him to come with us?" Ken asked.

There was a long silence, but finally Ran caved. "I'll think about it," he said. "Will that satisfy you?"

"Thank you!" Ken said brightly.

Ran grumbled a little under his breath as his footsteps retreated across the room. There came the sound of the door opening, and Ran paused and said, "In the mean time, keep packing." Then the door closed and he was gone.

Youji felt like doing a victory dance, but since Ken still didn't know they were there, he had to remain quiet, so he settled for hugging Omi from behind instead.

"That went well," Omi whispered softly.

"Yes it did," Youji agreed. "Now can we get the hell out of here?"

/-/-/-/

As it turned out, neither Omi nor Youji saw Ran again until dinner that evening. When Ran did come to eat, he remained silent at first, although the silence was not as tense as it had been that morning. It wasn't until partway through the meal that a nudge from Ken prompted him to clear his throat in preparation for speaking. Omi and Youji both looked at him expectantly.

"After some consideration," here Ran shot a sideways look at Ken, "I have come to the conclusion that I might have been a little hasty in my assessment last night." Ran paused, his mouth working for a moment before he looked straight at Omi and managed to continue, "If you are still willing to assist me, I would welcome the help."

Omi looked at him sternly. "Normally I would hesitate to work with someone who so obviously dislikes me," he said. "However, Youji is with you, and as a favor to him, I would be happy to accompany you."

Youji raised his napkin to his mouth to hide his triumphant smirk.

Ran seemed to take no notice of the chastisement. "Good," he said curtly. "Can you be ready to leave by tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Omi looked surprised. He had thought that Ran's insistence upon leaving so soon was simply the result of the tension between them and that he would be willing to wait a little longer once they reached their agreement.

"Yes, tomorrow," Ran said. "I've wasted six years already, I have no desire to waste any more time."

"But I can't leave tomorrow!" Omi cried. "I'm supposed to take care of things here until my uncle gets back. I can't possibly leave before he returns."

Ran's eyebrow twitched dangerously, but only a hint of annoyance entered his voice as he asked, "And when do you expect him back?"

"Oh, not for another week at least," Omi said apologetically.

"A week!" Ran exploded. "That long?"

"Possibly longer," Omi added.

Ran looked ready to burst a blood vessel, and Youji hastily put in, "Just think, Ran, it will give Ken more time to heal, so we can travel faster when we do leave."

"A week," Ran repeated angrily. He trailed off into unintelligible mutterings about further delays while Ken looked at him sympathetically and Youji and Omi exchanged smiles.

After all, Ran hadn't said he wouldn't be willing to wait.

Tbc...

Author's Notes: Yes, I know, I know, this chapter is horribly late. It's a little longer than most of the others, which might help to make up for that. Hopefully my homework load this quarter will be lighter, and I'll have more time to write.


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Note: A while back, I sat down and diagrammed the story out, assigning plot points to chapters. What I found out is that I've still got a very long way to go on this...

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 10

For all Ran's grumbling, he knew that there was nothing for it but to settle in and wait until Omi's uncle came back, and he resigned himself accordingly. The first day of the week, Omi gathered them all together and made Ran recount the story of his sister's abduction in painstaking detail. Ran didn't like remembering the incident, and he couldn't help wondering if Omi really needed to ask him about it, since he could just as easily gotten the whole story from Youji. Nevertheless, he described the incident as he remembered it, even though a malicious part of his mind whispered that Omi only wanted to hear about it so it would look as though he was getting something done. Recognizing the thought for what it was – his own attempt at retaliation for the pain of remembering – Ran dismissed it.

After that meeting, however, Ran saw very little of Omi except at meal times. Apparently the boy had his own extensive preparations to make for leaving. Omi apologized for being a bad host and regretfully explained that since he helped his uncle run the estate even when his guardian was present, he had a lot to do to make sure things would run smoothly in his absence. Left to his own devices, Ran decided that he might as well make himself comfortable until their departure, and so he sought and found the library.

He was sitting there reading quietly on the afternoon of the third day when Ken came and found him.

Ran knew Ken was there before he actually saw him. Despite being in a library, the young man made no attempt to be quiet, which was normal for him. He simply stomped over to Ran and threw himself down in a nearby chair. He didn't say anything at first, but glared hard at the cover of the book Ran was reading until Ran finally lowered it with a sigh and asked, "Was there something you wanted?"

"I'm bored," Ken stated matter-of-factly.

Ran raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

"There's nothing to do in the house," Ken complained.

"What about exploring?" Ran suggested.

"Done that already. What'd you think I've been doing the last two days?" Ken slumped lower in the chair gloomily. "I think I've already found most of the interesting stuff. Did you know there's a passage behind the wall to my room that connects to yours and a whole lot of other rooms?"

Ran hadn't known. "No," he said. "How did you come to find such a thing?"

Ken shrugged. "I was just checking some things. I was a thief, remember, even if it was just for a little while. It pays to pay attention to these things."

Ran could see how it might, and he nodded slightly before trying to go back to his book. He knew that reading was probably a hopeless endeavor with a bored Ken in the room, but he figured there was no harm in trying.

Ken, however, would not be deterred. "I asked Omi," he said.

"About what?" Ran asked disinterestedly.

"About what there was to do around here," Ken said.

"And?" Ran prompted, sensing that Ken was going to share the answer with him one way or another anyway.

"And he started apologizing about being a bad host," Ken said, smiling slightly at the memory. "And once I got him to stop that, he suggested some stuff to do outdoors. He said there's a foresty-type area over in the hills on the west end of the property, and we could take some horses from the stable and go exploring if we liked."

'We,' Ran thought. 'Now we're getting to it. I knew it had to be something.' Aloud, he said, "And I suppose you want me to go with you?"

"Well, you can't exactly say you've got anything better to do," Ken said, eyeing the book in his hand. "The books'll still be here when we get back."

Ran had to admit that he was right, and actually, the prospect of going out riding with Ken was not such an unappealing one. Without comment, he set aside his book and rose to his feet. Ken, grinning in delight at Ran's tacit acceptance of the suggestion, jumped up from his chair and grabbed Ran's wrist, towing him enthusiastically outside and to the stables. Ran, although slightly surprised by the gesture, allowed himself to be towed.

Once they had reached the stables and were waiting for the grooms to saddle up the horses, Ran thought to ask, "Did you invite Youji along on this outing?"

"Huh?" Ken, who had been fidgeting next to him, seemed a little surprised by the question. "Oh, no. He seemed like he was having fun keeping Omi company, so I left him alone. Besides, you were the one who was so worried the last time I was on a horse, so I thought you might want to come along to make sure I don't kill myself or something."

Ran wasn't quite sure what to say to that until he looked over and caught sight of Ken's grin. Ken was teasing him, he realized.

"That's nice," he remarked. "But did you bring me along to keep me from worrying or to really make sure you don't get yourself killed?"

"Hmph," Ken said, giving him a disgruntled look, and Ran couldn't help smirking a bit.

/-/-/-/

As it turned out, Ran's outings with Ken became something of a daily occurrence during the week they stayed with Omi. It got Ken out of the house and kept him from becoming too restless, and it gave him a chance to exercise without straining himself too much. It was always just the two of them on these trips, as Omi was far too busy to accompany them, and the one time Ken asked Youji, he'd been informed that the older man was already fairly familiar with the grounds and had no need to go exploring. The arrangement seemed to suit them just fine, however. As much as Ken liked Youji and Omi, Ran wasn't sorry to leave them behind each day. And Ran was more relaxed on these outings, something he wasn't sure would be possible with Youji around. They had a way of riling each other up sometimes.

So each day Ken headed into the forest with Ran riding next to him. He'd make his way to a stream he'd found on the first day, and follow it until he came to a tributary he hadn't explored yet. If left to his own devices, Ken would probably have left the stream altogether and gone off his own way into the forest, but Ran insisted that they stick close to the stream, both so that they wouldn't get lost, and because the path there was less steep, a little more open, and generally easier for the horses to pick through.

As they rode, Ken would talk. He talked about his home, his former job, his students and how much they'd learned. He talked about his childhood and how his father had taught him to use weapons at a very early age. He even spoke a little about his parents, although not much, as the subject was still slightly painful to him. For the first day or two, Ran simply listened and nodded or grunted at appropriate intervals. However, as time went on, he gradually began to talk more himself. He talked a little about his estate, which Ken was to see soon, his life there, and even his sister.

"What was she like?" Ken asked as they were riding along on the seventh day.

Ran took a minute to answer, as he had to first dissuade his horse from walking under a tree with low hanging branches that would have knocked him off. "Aya, you mean?"

"Yeah," Ken said, pausing to wait for him.

Ran finally got his horse to cooperate and came trotting up along side Ken. "She was... lively," he said. "She seemed to have fun doing the simplest things. She could be willful though, sometimes. She didn't like things to get in the way of what she wanted to do. I probably let her get away with more than I should have."

"But that's what older brothers are for," Ken said. "Being strict is the parents' job."

Ran smiled ruefully. "Yes, but after my parents died, it became my job," he said. "I didn't do it as well as I should have. I should never have let her go out that day, especially after our guardian had already told us no."

Ran sounded so melancholy that Ken found himself unconsciously leaning closer, as if trying to comfort him with his mere presence. However, Ken's horse, following her rider's subtle directions, moved a little too close to Ran's horse, who promptly leaned over and bit her. The mare squealed and danced to the side, and there was a confused moment during which both of the riders tried to regain control of their respective mounts.

"Damn animal," Ran cursed his horse as he finally managed to rein the ill mannered creature in.

"That's what you get for letting them give you a new one all the time," Ken said, patting his horse soothingly on the neck. "It was only a matter of time before you got one that hates you."

Ran snorted but said nothing. While he knew that each horse had a slightly different temperament, he had yet to come across one that he couldn't handle, and so he wasn't picky when it came to riding other people's animals. The stable hands seemed to like this, as they looked upon Ken and Ran's outings as a chance to get the horses some exercise. Each day, they would politely ask if the gentleman had a preference for a particular horse, and each day, when Ran answered no, they would give him a different mount. Ken, who had developed a preference after the second day of riding, had a rather sedate and easy-going mare that he asked for each day.

Ran was beginning to wish he had followed Ken's example. He supposed Ken was right; with his strategy, it was only a matter of time before he got a horse he didn't like. Today's seemed to be that horse. The colt he was riding was young, inexperienced, easily startled, and generally badly behaved. The creature had already spooked several times, tried to brush Ran off against a tree, and nearly bitten him.

As if to further prove his point, a bird suddenly erupted from the branches of a tree next to Ran, disturbed, no doubt, by his horse's constant movement. The colt spooked and reared, throwing Ran, who had been unprepared for the sudden movement, clean out of the saddle. He hit the ground with a whump and all the breath was knocked out of him. As he lay trying to recover it, he heard his horse cantering off through the forest. He wanted to get up and chase the animal, but he couldn't seem to get enough air in his lungs to move just then. After a moment, a hand materialized, reaching down to touch his shoulder, and Ran realized that Ken had dismounted and come over to help him.

"You okay?" Ken asked, looking concerned.

In answer, Ran sat up and swore violently. Not only had he just been thrown off, something which rarely happened, but he had been thrown off in front of Ken. Ken, who, even injured, could keep his seat in the saddle. What a way to make himself look like an idiot.

"Did you get the horse?" Ran asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"No," Ken said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Ran said, rising to his feet. "I suppose it's too late to go after him."

"I wouldn't worry too much about your horse," Ken said, watching his movements carefully for any sign on injury. "He looked like he was heading back towards the stable. He'll probably get there before we do."

"Probably, since it looks like I'll be walking now," Ran muttered sourly.

"Walking?" Ken repeated, bewildered. "Don't be stupid. You'll just have to ride behind me now."

Ran just stared at him.

"C'mon," Ken said, "It wouldn't be that bad, would it? And it's the fastest way to get back. Unless you'd rather ride in front."

Ran just snorted. "I haven't ridden double with anyone since I was seven," he said.

Ken shrugged. "If you really want to walk..."

Ran didn't especially want to walk, and so a few minutes later he found himself nursing his pride as he sat behind Ken in the saddle, arms draped loosely around Ken's waist. He half expected Ken to tease him the entire way back for falling off like that, but Ken seemed rather preoccupied. Once or twice, Ran thought he saw a faint hint of red in his cheeks, but dismissed it as his imagination.

"So tell me more about your family," Ken said, trying to strike up a conversation after riding several minutes in silence.

Ran just shrugged. "There's not much more to tell."

"I can't believe that," Ken said. "You've hardly told me anything about your parents, really. Mostly you just talk about Aya."

Ken was right, Ran realized. Most of his conversation had centered directly or indirectly around his sister. After six years of hunting for her, he supposed that he had grown used to her dominating his thoughts, or at least sitting in the back of them. "My parents? Where should I start?"

"Well, where did they come from? What were they like? That kind of thing," Ken prompted.

"Well, my father was from the estate. It went from his father to him, and then to me. That land has been with the Fujimiya family for at least five generations, and possibly longer. As for my mother..." Ran trailed off into silence.

"Your mother?" Ken asked, carefully guiding the horse along a place where the bank above the stream grew narrow.

"Actually, I'm not exactly sure where my mother came from before she married my father," Ran said, frowning at the thought. "I think she was from somewhere to the southeast, but she never really mentioned exactly where. She didn't like to talk much about her life before she married my father. Aya and I used to imagine all sorts of silly things when we were children. Aya's favorite was that our mother was a princess hiding from an arranged marriage." Ran snorted, but there was a note of affection in the sound. "That's silly, of course. Now, I think that there must have been some sort of accident that killed her family, and she simply didn't like to think about it."

Ken just nodded, since he seemed to need to concentrate on where they were going. Ran realized that while he'd been talking, Ken had gradually steered the horse away from the stream and they were now cutting downhill through the forest.

"Why are we going this way?" he asked. "We should stick to the stream."

"Don't worry so much about getting lost," Ken said confidently. "I know where we're going. This way's faster. It'll get us back soon enough to look for your horse before dark, just in case he didn't go straight back."

"Yes, but it's steeper," Ran said, eyeing the narrow path that ran down the hill before them.

"Steep didn't bother you before," Ken pointed out.

"Yes, but before I had my own saddle and stirrups," Ran said. "Now I keep sliding forward into you."

"It's okay," Ken said, and Ran thought he saw that hint of red across Ken's cheeks again. "I don't mind."

Ran shrugged, but found that he didn't much mind either. Ken's back was broad and firm, and not unpleasant to lean into, and as long as Ken didn't mind supporting the extra weight, Ran saw no reason to move. He wrapped his arms a little more firmly around Ken's waist and settled in for the ride back. Ken shifted a bit in front of him, probably to readjust the weight so it was more comfortable, and then seemed to settle. For a few minutes, they both rode on in silence.

It was Ken who finally broke it. "You didn't finish telling me about your parents," he said.

Now that he had started on the subject, Ran realized, Ken was going to prod him until he finished it properly, so he started up his narrative again. He talked about his father, a stern man who had been firm with his children while never leaving them in any doubt about how much he loved them. He talked about his mother, a cheery if slightly high-strung woman who had doted on her children. And of course, he talked about Aya, whose memory had driven him for the last six years.

He didn't realize how long he had been rambling on until they came out of the trees at the foot of the hill near the stables. Some of the stable hands were visible, and Ran was mildly relieved to see that one of them was holding the bridle of his horse. Apparently the animal had run straight back home, just as Ken had said it would.

Upon catching sight of the two of them, a groom ran up to take the bridle of the horse. "There you are," he said. "The young master was out here looking for you earlier. He said to inform you when you returned that his uncle has come home."

Tbc...

Author's Note: Another chapter down, another ten or so to go. Just as a warning, the rating may go up in the near future, simply because I'm paranoid and like to error on the side of caution when it comes to rating things.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 11

"Oh, there you two are!" Omi said when he saw Ran and Ken. "I was wondering when you would get back."

"We were informed that your uncle has returned," Ran said, closing the door to the little sitting room they were in behind him. He moved to take a seat in a chair facing Omi, who was seated in a large chair near the window. Youji had lazily sprawled across the sill, one knee drawn up, the other leg dangling, as if he couldn't be bothered to sit in a proper fashion. Ken, looking around the room and finding no seats that wouldn't leave him excluded from the half circle formed by the other three, simply settled for leaning against the back of Ran's chair.

"He got back early this afternoon, not too long after lunch time," Omi said. "I would have told you immediately, but you were out, and it didn't seem worth the trouble to go find you."

"So this means we're leaving soon, right?" Ken asked.

Omi nodded. "As soon as you want to depart," he said, tipping his head at Ran. "I can be ready to leave by tomorrow morning if you like."

"We leave tomorrow then," Ran said, a little relieved at the prospect of finally getting underway. He hated idleness; it gave him way too much time to think.

Youji leaned over from his perch and nudged Omi's shoulder casually. "Tell him what you found out from your uncle."

Ran's ears pricked. "Your uncle told you something? About Takatori?"

Omi nodded. "I wasn't quite sure where to start, especially since I haven't had much time this week to do research, so I decided to ask him if he remembered anything about my father, since I remember so little." Omi paused in his narrative, frowning slightly.

"And?" Ran prompted, leaning forward a little.

"And he gave me a whole long speech about how I shouldn't worry about my father because I'm not a Takatori anymore, and how my father is a horrible man, et cetera, et cetera," Omi said. "He did, however, tell me one interesting thing. Apparently, Takatori is somehow mixed up with a group that's supposed to practice dark magic."

Ran just blinked at that. Ken, however, looked skeptical. "I thought there was no magic left in the world," he said.

Ran nodded. "According to history, all magic left the world after the great sorcerer hunt two hundred years ago. It was said that even sorcerers that survived the hunt lost their magic, no matter what purpose they used it for. Some people said it was the gods' way of punishing humans for being so foolish as to start the hunt in the first place. All magic was taken out of the world, even the white magic used for healing."

"I remember that story too," Omi said. "However, I wonder if the historical accounts are really accurate in the regard. It could have simply been that after the sorcerer hunt, anyone who had and used magic denied it for fear of being killed. That could lead most people to think that all the magic had left the world, when what really happened was that its practitioners went underground, so to speak."

"But if there're still people who use magic, surely someone would know, wouldn't they?" Ken said, frowning. "I mean, two hundred years is a long time to keep something like that hidden."

"Well, it is just a rumor," Omi admitted. "Youji seemed to think I should mention it."

"I've run across a lot of rumors of magic in my work," Youji said. "None of them have ever really seemed to have any truth behind them, but when you start hearing things like that, it's usually a sign that the case is going to get nasty. I just thought you guys should be warned."

"Consider us warned then," Ran said. "You were right to tell me, but I doubt it's important. I'd prefer something a little more concrete to go on. And I don't care how nasty the case gets, as long as I find Aya."

"You may not care," Youji said, "but don't forget that the rest of us are along for the ride too. And I think I speak for everyone when I say we'd much rather come out of this alive."

He cast a meaningful glance at Ken and Omi, both of whom nodded in agreement.

"Then be careful," Ran said, rising to his feet. "And start packing. I want to leave as early as possible tomorrow."

/-/-/-/

Ken jerked awake very suddenly, his hands still reaching out to grasp something. He was breathing rather heavily and sweating, and for a moment he lay still catching his breath, feeling confused and disoriented. What had woken him? Something to do with his dream, surely. His dream...

Abruptly, images from that dream began to come back to him. Ran. Ran without clothing. Ran, sweat glistening on his skin, rising above him, violet eyes fixed intently on him...

Ken sat up and shook his head violently, trying to clear the images from his mind. He felt a hot blush spreading over his face. His whole body was tingling, and he didn't have to check under the sheets to know that he was horribly aroused.

As if to add to his embarrassment, there came a knock at the door. "Don't come in!" he yelled without thinking.

"...Ken?" Ran's voice drifted through the door to him, sounding hesitant.

"What is it?" he called, trying to school his voice into some state that resembled composure.

"I thought I heard noises," Ran said. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Ken said, because aside from the fact that he was sure his face would catch fire if it got any hotter, it was true. After a moment, he thought to ask, "What did you hear?" Silently he hoped that Ran hadn't heard much. And if he had, perhaps whatever deity was delighting in picking on him would be kind enough to let him die of mortification and be done with it.

"I just thought I heard your voice," Ran said, "so I came to investigate."

"Oh," Ken said. Then, feeling that the situation required a little more explanation than that, he added, "I'm fine, I just had a... dream." He didn't add any more elaboration than that. Let Ran think it was a nightmare if he wanted to, but Ken wasn't going to say he'd had a bad dream, because he hadn't really. Although in retrospect it was damn embarrassing.

"All right," Ran said. "Goodnight then."

"Goodnight," Ken called in return. He listened to the sound of Ran's footsteps retreating down the hallway and the sound of the door next to his closing before he allowed himself to relax, slumping back onto the pillows. Well, that had been a close call. He didn't even want to imagine what would have happened if Ran had walked in to find out that Ken had been having one of **those** dreams about him.

On the one hand, Ken wasn't terribly surprised by the dream. He'd found Ran attractive since their first meeting, and prolonged exposure had only strengthened that feeling. However, this was the first dream of that sort he'd had that featured the redhead, and he was a little surprised that it should start happening now. The horseback ride, he decided. That must have been what had done it. Having Ran sitting behind him, chest to his back, thighs pressed against his...

Resigning himself to his fate, Ken settled himself down and pulled a pillow over his face to muffle any sounds he might make as he took care of himself.

/-/-/-/

"Are you feeling quite all right, Ken?" Omi asked, sounding concerned. "You look tired."

" 'm fine," Ken mumbled, lethargically taking another bite of his breakfast. "Just didn't sleep well."

"Well I hope your nightmare won't affect your ability to travel," Ran said.

"No," Ken answered, a little relieved that Ran had indeed assumed that the dream had been a nightmare. That meant he really hadn't heard much.

"You had a nightmare?" Omi asked, a tinge of worry in his voice.

"Not a nightmare, really," Ken said. "Just a strange dream."

Omi waited a moment to see if Ken would elaborate, but when he didn't, the boy went back to his own breakfast.

Youji let out an exaggerated yawn. "I feel for you, Ken. This lot," he gestured to Ran and Omi, "keep conspiring to get me up at unthinkable hours."

Omi just snorted. "If you ask me, not getting up until noon is the unthinkable part."

"If you're looking for sympathy, I suggest you look elsewhere," Ran said coldly. "Ken lost sleep to a dream, something he had no control over, whereas you probably simply stayed up too late again."

"I'll have you know that I have a professional excuse for staying up late," Youji said self-righteously. "I'm supposed to investigate nefarious deeds, am I not? Well, everyone knows that those happen at night."

Ran let out a derisive snort at that. "And all the barmaids you kept company with, were they professional contacts?" he asked.

Across the table from Ken, Omi suddenly went rather still. "Barmaids?" he asked, an odd note entering his voice.

"It might have been the chambermaids," Ran amended, still scowling at Youji.

"Ran, shut up," Youji said, and Ken was rather taken aback by the suddenly chilly tone of his voice.

Apparently Ran was too, for he sat back and regarded Youji with a frown for several minutes. Finally, he said, "I don't really care what your personal habits are, Kudou, so long as they do not interfere with your work."

"Then stop going on about things you don't understand," Youji said sharply.

Ken, sensing a potential argument brewing, looked to Omi to see if the boy was going to try to rein his friend in. Omi, however, was staring rather blankly at his plate and seemed to be taking no notice of his surroundings.

Fortunately, Omi's peacemaking abilities were not necessary, as both Ran and Youji seemed to have said everything they wanted to say to each other. The rest of breakfast, however, was a rather tense affair.

/-/-/-/

They set off just after breakfast, leaving behind Omi's home and the wooded hills that Ken and Ran had explored. As they plodded steadily northward, Ken couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. Whatever had been in the air at breakfast had not properly cleared, and Youji seemed irritable, while Omi was simply glum and silent. Ken tried to keep a conversation going, but kept running into a wall where those two were concerned. It was a sad day indeed, Ken thought, when Ran was one of the more talkative members of the party.

Eventually he simply gave up on the other two and settled to riding ahead with Ran, who had taken the lead since he knew where they were going. The day passed fairly uneventfully and in a similar manner to the days that he had spent exploring with Ran. Ken talked, and Ran listened and occasionally commented. Sometimes Ken would glance back at Omi and Youji to see how they were fairing. Once or twice he saw them engaged in a low conversation, but most of the time they simply rode on without looking at or speaking to each other.

As the afternoon began to draw to a close, however, Ken got a rather nasty shock.

"We should start looking for a place to stay soon," Ran said. "I hope there's an inn with two rooms to spare."

Ken nodded, and then suddenly, realizing the implications of the words, asked, "Two rooms?"

"There are four of us now," Ran said. "Putting all four in one room would be a little crowded, and I think two to a room works better anyway. Besides, I'm looking forward to not having to room with Kudou again."

Ran might be looking forward to it, but Ken was silently kicking himself. Of course, now that they were not staying with Omi and had to pay for their rooms, Ran would be all in favor of combining them to lower the cost. But Ken wasn't sure what would happen now if he tried to room with someone else. What if he had another dream? A horrible thought occurred to Ken. Ran had as good as stated that he wasn't going to share a room with Youji. That meant he would share with either Ken or Omi. What if Ken had another dream with Ran in the room?

Ran was frowning at him, and Ken realized that he had rather abruptly fallen silent and slowed his mount almost to a halt. "Uh... who were you thinking of putting in each room?" Ken asked.

"Well," Ran said, "I thought that since Youji and Omi are already well acquainted, they should be able to share without too much trouble, and then you and I would-"

Ken cut him off, "Um, I'm not sure that's a good idea."

Ran gave him a slightly puzzled look and waited for him to explain why not.

"Um... Youji and Omi don't seem to be getting along well today," Ken said hastily. "Maybe we shouldn't stick them in the same room tonight."

Ran glanced back at their other two companions and scowled. "Whatever is wrong between them, I had hoped they would have fixed it by now."

"Let me talk to them," Ken said, and before Ran had a chance to answer, he had pulled his horse to a stop and was waiting for Youji and Omi to reach him. Ran cast one more puzzled glance his way, but decided to humor him and continued on his way.

When Youji and Omi finally caught up to him, Ken quickly came up alongside Youji and said, "Look, Youji, I need to ask a favor, and you can't ask me why, okay?"

Youji gave him a confused look, but said, "Fire away. What do you want?"

"When we stop tonight, I need you to let me share a room with you."

If anything, Youji seemed more confused. "Why with me?"

"Because," Ken said, "It's gonna be two to a room, and I can't room with Ran. Please don't ask why. And he won't room with you, so that means..." he trailed off, shooting Youji a pleading look.

Youji looked over to Omi, who was riding alongside watching the two of them. "That'd leave you stuck with Ran, Omitchi. What do you think?"

Omi shrugged listlessly. "Sure, why not. That way I wouldn't interfere with any of your activities."

Youji winced and opened his mouth to say something, then glanced at Ken and shut it again.

Ken wondered briefly at the exchange, but he was too caught up in his relief to pay it much attention. "Thanks, guys," he said. "I'll go let him know." And he quickened his horse's pace until he was alongside Ran again to inform him of the arrangements. It was a rather temporary fix, it was true, but hopefully he could keep the rooming arrangements this way until he managed to get himself under control or they reached Ran's estate, whichever happened first.

/-/-/-/

By midnight that night, Ken was beginning to wonder why Ran had been so adamant about not sharing a room with Youji. So far, rooming with the man didn't seem to be any different from rooming alone. Youji had vanished earlier in the evening and had yet to return. At first, Ken had waited up, figuring that there was no point in going to bed before he returned, as Youji would simply wake him up when he came in anyway. Now, however, he was tired of waiting and ready to call it a night.

Ken was digging around through his bags for something suitable to wear to bed when he heard the door open. Turning, he saw Youji come stumbling in, looking rather unsteady on his feet. The man staggered over to his bed and half sat half fell onto it.

"Youji," Ken said after watching this display, "are you drunk?"

"An' if I am?" Youji slurred, giving him a rather inebriated challenging look.

"You should probably go to bed, that's all," Ken said.

Youji made a snorting sound that might have been laughter. " 'M glad I roomed with you," he said. "Ran'd be all over my case by now. 'Specially tonight. He's in a pissy mood tonight," Youji said.

"Is he?" Ken asked.

"Mmhm," Youji nodded and then couldn't seem to get his head to stop its motion. Finally, he managed to get it under control and sat with his chin resting nearly on his chest. "I think it's 'cause he's gotta room with Omi." Here a faint frown crossed Youji's face. "He better be nice to Omi, th' bastard."

"Ran's not a bastard," Ken felt the need to defend the redhead. "At least not all the time," he amended.

"He is ta Omi," Youji said, still frowning. " 'Course, 'm not any better."

Ken blinked at him in surprise. "You?" he said.

"Yeah, me." The frown was gone, replaced by a melancholy look. "I can't get over her."

"Who?" Ken asked, wondering how a female had come into the explanation when he wasn't paying attention.

"Asuka," Youji said. His voice softened over the name, as if giving it a sorrowful verbal caress.

"Who is Asuka?" Ken was lost. He'd never heard of anyone by that name before.

"My girl. My partner," Youji said, his eyes glazing over slightly as he gazed at the wall just beyond Ken. "Least she was before Takatori killed 'er."

Ken's eyes went wide. "Takatori killed your partner?" he gasped, unable to believe what he was hearing.

Youji flopped back on the bed with a low, pain filled moan.

"Youji?" Ken moved over to sit on the bed next to him.

"Dun know it was him," Youji said. "Wait, 's not true. I know, but there's no proof. We were investigatin' something about him, and she didn't come back. Found her three days later. She was... she was..." Youji broke off, voice choking at the memory. He rolled onto his side and brought one hand up to cover his face, as if trying to shield his eyes from whatever image had come into his mind.

"It's okay," Ken hastened to reassure him. "You don't have to tell me."

"Bastard!" Youji choked vehemently. "Bastard!"

"What does this have to do with Omi though?" Ken asked, remembering how the conversation had started in the first place.

Youji lifted his hand a little, and slightly wet green eyes peered up at Ken. "Omi's so sweet," he murmured. "He said he'll be patient. He doesn't want to push after Asuka."

"Push?" Ken said, still confused. "Push you about what?"

"I didn't sleep with any barmaids," Youji said suddenly and very clearly. "Damn Ran for saying that."

Ken just sat and stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate and trying to remember if all the drunks he had ever talked to had been this difficult to understand.

"Now Omi thinks I did," Youji moaned, covering his eyes again. "He won't stop looking at me with those damn sad eyes."

"Did you tell him that you didn't?" Ken asked.

"Yeah," Youji said. "He doesn't believe me. I've done it before, see? I did it a lot after Asuka. But Omi said it was bad for me. An' I promised. I promised him no more of that if he'd wait for me to get over her."

"If he'd wait for you?" Ken felt like there was still something vital that he was missing.

"Can't replace her yet," Youji mumbled, rolling a little further so that his words were muffled slightly by the blankets. " 'S too soon."

Ken stared; he couldn't help it. Omi, replace Asuka in Youji's life? Was he simply referring to Omi becoming his partner in business? Something in the way Omi's eyes had looked that morning told Ken it was more than that. Those blue eyes had held more than disappointment, they had held a hint of betrayal.

Next to him, Youji made an indistinct noise and shifted slightly. Ken snapped out of his reverie and stared down at him. "Youji, I think you need to go to bed now," he said.

" 'M already in bed," came the muffled reply.

Ken sighed and got up to start pulling Youji's boots off. "I think you need to go to sleep."

"Can't sleep," Youji said, rolling over and inadvertently kicking one of his legs out of Ken's grasp. "He'll still be looking at me."

"You can make up with him in the morning," Ken said. "But Ran's going to make you get up early no matter what, so you'd better go to sleep now."

"Damn Ran," Youji muttered half-heartedly.

"Don't say that," Ken scolded.

"Hm..." Youji looked at him oddly for a moment, then sat up so he could remove his jacket. "Okay, okay. Sleep. Got it."

It took a few more minutes to get Youji settled in, and only after he was sprawled out under the covers snoring loudly did Ken climb into his own bed, only to find that he couldn't sleep. He lay staring at the wall and thinking about what Youji had said for quite some time.

/-/-/-/

Youji wasn't sure exactly what time it was when he woke up. It was still dark outside, and the lingering fuzzy sensation in his head told him that he was still feeling the effects of the alcohol he had consumed earlier. Other parts of his body were feeling the effects as well, including his bladder, which was what had rather rudely woken him up. Groaning, he stumbled out of bed and went to relieve himself.

He was stumbling back to bed feeling much better when he heard the noise. Pausing in the dark, Youji cocked his head to one side and listened. After a moment, he heard it again. A soft moan drifted to his ears from the direction of Ken's bed. Youji frowned. Was Ken sick? Had he shown signs of being sick earlier in the evening? Try as he might, Youji couldn't remember. His recollections of his return to the room were rather fuzzy.

Still, the longer Youji listened, the more he doubted that illness was causing the noises Ken was making. The brunet was dreaming; that much was obvious. And as Youji listened to his breathing patterns, he suddenly had a fair idea of what the theme of this particular dream might be. So, Ken was having one of those, was he? Well, it wasn't as if Youji had never had them before. He was just getting ready to climb back into bed and forget the whole thing when he heard it.

"Ran..."

Youji stared in the direction of Ken's bed, forgetting that in the dark room it was impossible to actually see anything. He hadn't just heard that, had he? Ken, having erotic dreams about Ran? Suddenly the memory of Ken asking him if they could room together came back to Youji. Ken's anxious request to avoid sleeping in the same room with Ran... it was all starting to make a little more sense now.

Youji settled himself back in his own bed with a slight smile quirking his lips. Even through the alcohol induced haze that filled his head, he sensed that he had just stumbled upon something interesting. Very interesting indeed...

Not that it was going to be easy for Ken even if he decided he wanted to pursue Ran, Youji reflected. Ran had been chasing the shadow of one girl for so long that Youji wasn't sure he even remembered sometimes that the rest of the world still existed. Still, his brief time knowing the brunet had taught him that Ken was nothing if not stubborn.

As interesting as this garnered tidbit of gossip might be, there was nothing to be done about it at the moment. Youji rolled over and pulled the covers up over his head to hopefully block out any other noises Ken might make while he tried to sleep. After all, Ken had been right when he'd said that Ran would get them up early the next morning. Right now the redhead had only one goal on his mind, and that was to find his sister.

Tbc...

Author's Note: Yes, there was Youji/Omi and angst. And there was much rejoicing in the land of the beta reader.

Sorry this chapter took so long, but the good news is that the next one should be much faster.


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 12

Finding Aya was not nearly as difficult as Nagi had anticipated it would be. For once, the girl was actually where she was supposed to be, in her room. He could hear her moving around inside. Two quick taps on the door provided all the warning he was willing to give her before he opened the door and slipped inside. Aya glanced up at him and pursed her lips in annoyance.

"Have you come to make sure I'm behaving myself?" she asked in an oddly cheerful voice which didn't quite manage to conceal its note of bitterness.

Nagi didn't bother to answer. They both knew why he was there.

Aya threw herself down into her desk chair and scowled at the books that covered the wooden surface of the desk. "Fine, I'll be good and study. Not that it makes much of a difference. You'll never let me see my brother, will you? I'm almost starting to think he's escaped from you."

Still Nagi stayed silent, keeping his face impassive to avoid giving anything away. Fortunately, since that was the expression that most often graced his features and Aya was not a mind reader, she noticed nothing.

"Oh, I really don't want to study anymore," she whined, giving the books a distasteful push away from her. "It's not like it will really help much."

"But I hear you didn't do well in your practice examination this morning," Nagi said, trying not to look too much like he was interested. He actually knew very little about the examinations, since Takatori insisted on conducting them himself. He knew that the most recent one had not gone as his employer would have liked, but not why.

Aya made a face. "I did just fine, mostly. I know all the vocabulary, but my pronunciation is off, apparently. Though really, I don't know how he expects me to learn that from a book."

"You have a book which shows you the phonetic spellings of the words, do you not?" Nagi said. So that was why Takatori had been so irritated this morning. Crawford might be interested to know that.

"I do," Aya sounded as though the admission had been dragged from her.

She rifled through the books on her desk until she located the appropriate one. Pulling it out of the pile, she opened it and glanced at it for a moment, the abruptly shut it again and hurled it at the wall. The book sailed across the room, pages flapping wildly, but stopped just before it struck the wall. It froze in midair for a moment, then closed itself neatly and glided back across the room to hover about a foot from Aya's face.

Once upon a time, such a display would have alarmed Aya. The first time Nagi had done it, she had screamed outright and tried to bat the book away. Now, however, she was used to such things. Sometimes Nagi thought she threw her books almost as a game, testing his reflexes to see if he could stop them before the actual impact. The poor girl must be very bored indeed, he reflected, if she was resorting to such things.

Aya reached up and took the book reluctantly. "I hate studying phonetics," she said petulantly. "Why is the actual pronunciation so important anyway? It's not like anybody except for Takatori and maybe one or two other people actually speak the bloody language any more. I can read and write it just fine, isn't that enough?"

Again Nagi kept silent. Speaking was actually the most important part, but if he told her that, he would have to explain why, and that was not something she was supposed to know.

Aya set the book on the desk, opened it, and made a great show of looking over one of the pages for a moment. Then she abandoned the pretense and slumped across the desk, looking incredibly glum as she fixed her dark, melancholy eyes on him.

"I just want to see my brother," she said. "Is that so much to ask?"

"No," Nagi said, not asking why she bothered to tell him such things. He had long ago realized that what Aya desperately needed was someone to talk to, and as the least intimidating of her captors, he seemed to be it. She was going to spill all her thoughts on him, whether he bothered to answer her or not.

"Then why won't he let me see Ran?" Aya demanded. "Telling me I need to fix my speaking skills first... Hmph! I had half a mind to tell him exactly where he could stick his bloody speaking skills."

The corners of Nagi lips twitched slightly at that as he imagined Aya actually saying such a thing to Takatori's face. All he said, however, was, "That wouldn't have been very lady-like of you."

Aya snorted. "I've given up being lady-like. It's not as though there's anyone here who really cares if I am or not anyway."

Nagi couldn't really argue with that.

Sighing heavily, Aya picked her head up off the desk and gave her book a listless glance. "Oh well," she muttered resignedly, "I suppose I'd better get to it then. I do want to see my brother some time this century, after all." She paused to shoot Nagi a glance. "Could you please leave? It's difficult to study with you hovering there like a vulture, watching me."

"I'll check in on you in a bit then," Nagi said. To make sure you're doing what you're supposed to, was the unspoken threat.

Aya just nodded and waved him away. Satisfied that she was, for the moment at least, suitably compliant, Nagi slipped out of the room and quietly shut the door behind him.

/-/-/-/

Crawford was sitting in his own private study staring in distaste at the plate in front of him when the knock came. Welcoming any excuse to put off his next task, he called, "Enter."

Nagi came in and stood quietly near the door, waiting to be addressed.

"Well?" Crawford was not one to waste words. Obviously the boy had something he thought worth reporting, and it was best that he simply report it and be done with the matter.

"The girl is getting restless," Nagi said.

Crawford grunted. "That's nothing new. Should I send Schuldich down to visit her?"

Nagi shook his head. "She's behaving for the time being. But she's begun to suspect that we don't really have her brother captive."

"Wonderful," Crawford muttered, rubbing his head wearily. The news didn't surprise him really. Aya was a fairly intelligent girl and had probably guessed a while ago; he was only surprised she hadn't started questioning them earlier. Still, it might prove problematic.

"I also learned what went wrong with her examination earlier," Nagi said. "Apparently her pronunciation is off."

"I gathered it must have been something like that," Crawford said. "It would be speech she has trouble with. It's always the most important part that goes wrong."

Nagi nodded, then paused when he caught sight of the plate sitting on the desk before Crawford. He frowned slightly. "Again?" he said, nodding slightly at the plate.

"Our employer seems to think it necessary," Crawford said, a note of disdain entering his voice.

Nagi rolled his eyes but all he said was, "Shall I tell the others that you don't want to be disturbed?"

"They already know," Crawford said. "Now go and keep an eye on the girl and make sure she sticks to her task."

Nagi nodded obediently and left as quietly as he had entered, leaving Crawford to once again contemplate the dish in front of him. He stared at it, scowling. The plate of mushrooms still looked back at him, unaltered for all the ill will he was directing against it.

Mushrooms. Crawford had come to hate the damned things over the course of his life. It had been purely by accident that he had first discovered the effect they could have on him. He still had vague memories from when he was very young of his cousin apologizing profusely for very nearly poisoning him and everyone else in the family. Why the boy had offered to go out and collect mushrooms in the first place when he had no idea of how to identify them was a mystery, but he had, and the results were something Crawford would never forget as long as he lived.

Fortunately, or unfortunately he sometimes thought, the mushrooms his cousin had fed him had not been poisonous. They had, however, caused almost everyone who ate them to hallucinate. For Crawford, the effects of the mushrooms had merged with his inborn abilities and had given him some of the most vivid and horrific visions of the future that he had ever had. Sometimes he wondered how he had managed to retain his sanity through the experience.

However, once he knew of their effects, the mushrooms had become a tool he could use, if he was careful. If eaten in moderation, they would heighten his gift, allowing him to see more visions that he normally would have. It was useful on occasion, since his gift could be sporadic, showing him nothing at all for long periods of time. When he needed the knowledge his abilities could provide him with, sometimes he had to force the visions.

There were drawbacks as well. Crawford was almost always ill after eating them, whether from the food itself or the things he saw, he wasn't sure. Also, mushrooms did inevitably cause him to hallucinate a little, and sometimes he had difficulty picking out what had been a vision from the products of his own imagination. Usually he was fairly successful, but on a few occasions...

Feeling that the costs outweighed the benefits in all but the most dire situations, Crawford usually preferred to leave well enough alone and let his gift provide him with its brief glimpses of things to come when it would. However, once Takatori had found out about the effects the fungus could have on him, things had gotten complicated. Patience seemed to be something his employer lacked, and when he felt that things were not going quite as he would have liked them to, he often demanded that Crawford use the hated method to try and see something useful. Which was why Crawford was currently eyeing a forkful of the vile things.

He didn't especially want to eat them, but there was nothing for it, so he choked down the first mouthful, then the second, and on and on until he had finished them. Shoving the plate aside, he let his head rest against the surface of the desk as he waited for the effects to hit. It wouldn't be long now...

/-/-/-/

Crawford wasn't sure how much time had passed when he finally managed to pick his head up off the desk. Hours and hours, it felt like. His neck was stiff, and he felt cold and a little ill. Night had fallen while he'd been lost in his visions, and the room had gotten rather chilly.

Standing up slowly, he allowed himself to lean on the desk for a brief moment. He felt horrible, but at least it hadn't been for nothing. One of the visions he'd had would interest Takatori greatly, he was sure. He cast his mind back to the scene, the red-haired boy he'd met all those years ago, grown to a young man now, entwined with a brunet Crawford did not know. Yes, Takatori would be very interested in that, he was sure.

Crawford frowned, remembering some of the other things he had seen. Most of it had simply been colorful dreams brought on by the mushrooms, but there had been one near the end that he wasn't sure of, and it troubled him. Schuldich, he remembered, it had something to do with Schuldich, and that concerned him greatly. That young man had been his companion for a long time now, and he had watched the redhead change from a brash, sarcastic and overly confident teenager to a brash, sarcastic, and overly confident adult. Seven years of company was not something even he could brush off lightly, and in his weaker and more honest moments, he might even admit to being a little frightened at the idea of losing his friend. Which was why he fervently hoped that whatever he'd seen had been a dream and not a prophetic vision.

Whatever it had been, it had been terribly short. Just a glimpse, really. So brief that he couldn't remember it very clearly now. All he really recalled was that it had involved Schuldich, Takatori, and a hell of a lot of blood.

/-/-/-/

Takatori leaned back in his chair, staring at Crawford consideringly. "You're sure of this?" he asked.

"Quite sure," Crawford said.

Takatori frowned. "Well, he'll never have children if he insists on bedding another man."

"Precisely," Crawford said. "That being the case, is it really worth it to leave him at large? The girl has been demanding to see her brother for some time now. Perhaps if we had him in hand, we would have an easier time getting her to cooperate. It would give her a little extra... incentive."

"There's something in what you say," Takatori admitted. "I'm starting to think that some of her failure to perform is due to deliberate stubbornness and not because she couldn't speak properly if she wanted to. But I have no way to know for sure."

"Then with your permission, we'll obtain her brother and see if we can't find out," Crawford suggested, a rather cold smile crossing his face.

Takatori considered for a moment more, then said, "Very well. I was going to let the boy go his own way in hopes of securing the bloodline just in case the girl falls through, but I suppose if he'll never have children on his own, there's no point in that. Bring him here, but try not to damage him."

The smile did not leave Crawford's face as he bowed slightly and said, "Just as you wish."

Tbc...

Author's Notes: Yes, another Schwarz chapter. It was necessary for the plot to advance. From here on out, however, I don't think there will be any more chapters with just them. Also, in the somewhat unlikely event that any avid Crawford fans are actually reading this, hopefully they won't lynch me before I manage to finish the story.


	14. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Notes: I know it's been a really long time since I posted anything for this. I probably should have warned everyone that I was going to go on hiatus for a while to prevent spring quarter from kicking my butt. The problem is that by the time I figured this out, I was already on hiatus.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 13

"Hey, Omi, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Omi looked over at Ken in surprise, but said, "Of course. What did you want to talk about?"

Ken cast a quick glance ahead of them to make sure their other two companions were out of earshot before he said, "About Youji."

Omi sat up a little straighter in the saddle, giving Ken his full attention. "What about Youji?"

"Well, I know you're mad at him because of what Ran said, right?" Ken said. "Look, just don't pay any attention to what Ran says about him. He and Youji have been arguing since I met them, and I'm sure half the things they say to each other aren't true."

Despite his reasoning, Omi continued to look disheartened. "I'm afraid that this was probably one of the times when it was true then," he said. "You don't know Youji as I do."

"You'd say that you know Youji really well, right?" Ken asked, determined to do something to end the silence between his traveling companions.

"Yes," Omi said, obviously confused by the question but still willing to answer it.

"Does he usually tell the truth when he's drunk?"

Omi gave him a funny look, but said, "Well, yes, if you can get him to hold a straight conversation. He has a tendency to ramble and follow his own train of thought without caring if other people can follow his reasoning."

"But he tells the truth, right?"

"Yes."

"Well then," Ken said smugly, "you can take it from me that what Ran said wasn't true. Youji didn't do anything with any barmaids. He told me so."

"He got drunk then, did he?" Omi didn't sound surprised, only resigned.

"I think it was just 'cause he was upset that you were mad at him and wouldn't believe him," Ken said.

Omi looked thoughtfully at the reins in his hands and didn't answer.

"Anyway," Ken said, "I just thought I should let you know."

When Omi only nodded vaguely in reply, he decided to take it as a good sign.

/-/-/-/

All in all, Ran thought, it was amazing how little the road leading to his house had changed over the years. The forest that skirted it still stood silent and imposing, just as it probably had long before his birth. The setting sun cast the shadows of the trees across the road before them and the light came through the leaves in small patches, dappling the horses and riders alike with blotches of orange interspersed with shadow. Even the patterns, ever changing as they were, seemed familiar, reminding him of times when he was very young and he and his parents had ridden through these very trees, trying to reach the house before dark.

Nostalgia trip aside, Ran was glad to be there. He was very tired after having ridden all day trying to make the estate before nightfall. Originally he had thought to spend another night at an inn and complete the trip in the morning, but had decided that they could make the rest of the journey in one day if they pushed. When he'd put the idea to his companions, Youji and Omi had both been fairly indifferent, and Ken had seemed strangely taken with the idea. So they had pushed, and now everyone in the group seemed to be tired and silent and anxious to be there.

At least the silence was a more comfortable one now. Whatever issues they'd had between them, Youji and Omi seemed to have resolved them to their satisfaction and were now on speaking terms again, for which Ran was grateful. He had brought them here to look for clues about Aya, and to do that he needed a functional team, and having the two members who had known each other the longest not talking to each other did not bode well.

Looking ahead, Ran noticed that the road curved slightly in front of them, hiding the path they would soon travel from view. With a start, he remembered Aya calling him boring and riding off, rounding the bend and vanishing from his line of sight. Just here... just beyond that curve was where they had taken her.

Once there had been a time when he had ridden past the place almost daily and had become almost desensitized to the memory. However, having been away from home for so long chasing after her had left him unprepared and it all hit him like a tidal wave. As he rounded the bend, he could see the spot in the trees where he had chased after her. Foolish of him, to let himself be disabled so easily and let them get away. Foolish of him to have let her go out that day in the first place.

He hadn't realized that he had stopped his horse and was staring blankly into the trees until he heard Ken's voice beside him asking, "See something?"

Ran started and whipped his head around to stare at the young man. Ken had pulled his horse to a halt beside Ran's and was alternately peering into the trees and looking back at Ran in confusion.

"No," Ran said, his voice cold and distant even to his own ears. "It's nothing." He shook himself out of his daze and continued on. Ken looked back into the forest once more before shrugging and following after him.

/-/-/-/

His guardian was waiting to meet them when they arrived. Ran assumed that someone must have seen their approach and alerted her to their arrival, since she couldn't have known exactly when they would get there. When he had written to inform her of his imminent return home, he hadn't provided her with a specific date, which was just as well, given all the delays he had faced. Nevertheless, there she stood, looking calm and unsurprised to see him and the company he had brought.

When he and the others had dismounted and drawn close enough that talking was feasible, the woman gave Ran a small smile and raised one of her eyebrows a bit. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever return home again," she said.

Ran inclined his head at her. "You're looking well, Manx."

"I'm perfectly well, thank you," Manx said. "And before you bother asking, no, there have been no new developments here as far as your sister is concerned."

Ran nodded. That didn't surprise him much. There were never any new developments at home, but he always made a point of asking as soon as he arrived back from any trip. Perhaps the eternal optimist in him which he hadn't quite managed to crush was still holding out for some news of Aya.

"I'm afraid I don't have much to report either," he said. "Only that I've enlisted some help in the search."

Manx eyed the other three men with interest. "So I see," she said, her tone full of curiosity. Ran couldn't really blame her for wondering about these three. In six years, while he had employed outside help, he had never brought anyone back to the estate. He wondered if it was a good or a bad sign that he was doing so now.

Shifting her gaze to the others, Manx addressed them. "Gentlemen, I'm not sure how much Ran has told you, but I'm Manx, Ran's former guardian and caretaker of his estate while he's gone."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Youji said, sidling up to her with a winning smile and bowing low. "I'm Youji Kudou, and these are Omi Tsukiyono and Ken Hidaka. Ran did tell us a little bit about you, but he failed to mention your beauty."

Manx calmly ignored his comment, while Ken rolled his eyes and leaned over to Omi to whisper, "He's flirting again."

Omi just shrugged. "Trying to get Youji to stop flirting is like asking it not to snow in winter. You might get what you want for a little while, but the results aren't always nice, and in the long run it's a futile wish anyway. I don't care if he flirts, as long as he doesn't pursue other activities beyond that."

"I don't think you have to worry about that now," Ken murmured. "This lady looks like she's not going for it."

Sure enough, Manx had managed to ignore most of Youji's comments, slide her hand out of his before he could kiss it, and dexterously sidestep her way out of an attempted embrace. Having thus dealt with Youji, she turned her attention to Omi and Ken. "Gentlemen," she said, "please make yourselves at home."

/-/-/-/

The first thing Omi did after stowing his things in the bedroom provided for him was to seek out the library. It was a massive room, filled floor to ceiling by books with a few south facing windows to provide light. For a few minutes, Omi simply wandered around, staring up at the books in awe and wondering where he should start.

He was startled out of this contemplation by the sound of the library door opening and closing softly. Turning around, he saw that Youji had decided to join him.

"I thought I might find you here," Youji said. "Starting research already?"

Omi laughed. "Actually, I was just looking and thinking if there was anything I'd want to read for fun. I hadn't really considered researching anything, mostly because I don't know if it will do any good unless I have a direction. At the moment, I wouldn't even know where to begin."

Youji considered that. "Well, starting tomorrow, I plan to poke around this place and ask Manx a few things. I might be able to come up with something for you to look into. Until then, you could try looking for anything that might confirm those rumors your uncle told you about."

"Magical history, you mean?" Omi shrugged. "It's a start, I suppose."

"At the moment, it's all we've got, pathetic as it is," Youji said.

"You're bound to find something else soon," Omi said reassuringly.

Youji made a soft affirmative noise, but he looked distant.

"This lack of leads is really bothering you, isn't it?" Omi asked. "But cheer up. Now that we're here, I'm sure you'll find something."

"It isn't just the lack of leads that bothers me," Youji said. "You want to know what really bothers me? Motive. Or rather the lack of it. Ever since Ran came and told me about the whole thing, I haven't been able to figure out why that girl vanished."

"Takatori kidnapped her," Omi said simply.

"Yes, but why? Kidnapping someone and holding them captive takes a lot of work. You have to make sure you aren't found while keeping your captive from escaping at the same time. Usually, if someone is in Takatori's way, he simply has them killed. Why take the girl alive? It obviously wasn't for ransom, since he hasn't demanded anything. But if she were dead, surely someone would have found her body by now."

"It could be that her body has been found and word simply hasn't gotten back to Ran yet," Omi said gravely.

"I've thought of that," Youji admitted. "In fact, when I first started, I was almost sure that must be what had happened. But that was before I really started working with Ran. Given the way he's been tracking Takatori for the last six years, I find it unlikely that he would have let something like a body slip by him unnoticed."

"Maybe they killed her and hid the body," Omi suggested.

"But again, you have to wonder why," Youji said. "Most of the people who've died because of Takatori have simply been left where they were. That man obviously isn't afraid of leaving evidence behind, either because he's managed to implicate someone else, or because he knows he's powerful enough to get away with it."

"But if she is still alive," Omi said, "that implies that there's something special about her that makes it worth his while to hang onto her."

"Exactly," Youji said. "Unfortunately, I haven't got a clue what that something is, and I don't think Ran knows either. That's why I want to talk to Manx about it as soon as possible. She's been their guardian since their parents died; she might know something about it. Or she might not, in which case we're screwed."

"Don't say that, Youji," Omi said, making a face. "We're the invincible team, remember? Between the two of us, we're bound to find something."

"I hope you're right," Youji muttered.

/-/-/-/

True to his word, Youji began the next day by talking to Manx, who, despite resisting all of his attempts to charm her personally, was nevertheless willing to tell him whatever he wanted to know. He started by asking about Aya herself, trying to find out more about the girl than the scant bit Ran had told him. Manx described her much the way Ran had, as a sweet, good natured girl who was inclined to be a little headstrong at times. However, there didn't seem to be anything particularly extraordinary about her, aside from the fact that she'd had Ran wrapped around her little finger, something which Youji was sure no one else would ever really manage to do.

Dissatisfied with that particular line of inquiry, Youji shifted his focus to include the family in general and was then treated to a rather lengthy lesson on the history of the estate and the Fujimiya family. Most of it was fairly boring, and despite wracking his brain, he could think of no way in which any of it might be pertinent to Aya's disappearance. Still, he sat politely and listened to Manx's accounts and even asked a few questions to make himself feel like he was doing something.

It seemed that the Fujimiya family had come into the land by displacing the previous owner (who, from Manx's accounts, had been a tyrant, but Youji thought that might just be family bias intruding into the story). They had lived on the land ever since with no major incidents or scandals that Manx could recall. Probably the most shocking thing that had happened before Aya's disappearance was Ran's father marrying a woman with no particular family connections. About Ran's mother, Manx was fairly vague. Being herself a distant relative on the Fujimiya side of the family, she knew little about the woman except her name and the general impression that she had been a pleasant person.

Question her as he might, Youji could not come across anything that seemed to him particularly important. He found it extremely disheartening, but decided to talk to Omi before he got too discouraged.

While Youji had spent most of his day talking to Manx, Omi had been sequestered in the library, and it was there Youji found him, still pouring over one of the books he had selected.

"How goes it?" Youji asked, sliding into a chair across the desk from the youth.

Omi sighed heavily. "I'm not sure. I've been looking into the history of magic, like you suggested, but so far I haven't found anything that might relate to the rumors my uncle mentioned. I thought I might be onto something when I came across a book that mentioned several families that were associated with various magical talents, but it didn't pan out."

"Magical talents?" Youji asked.

Omi nodded. "Apparently members of those families, even if they possessed very little in the way of magic, excelled at whatever their family was associated with. They had a family of healers, for instance, and a family that could manipulate the weather, even one that was associated with summoning demons, as horrifying as that sounds. It was fascinating, but I found no mention of Takatori in there anywhere."

"You didn't find anything else?" Youji asked.

Omi sighed and shoved a volume across the desk. "This one's on great magicians of history. Again, no mention of anyone named Takatori. Same as with the book on prominent names in magic. I've been trying to find any mention of the family, since if all magic was supposed to have died out ages ago, it would make sense that any that remained would run in families and be a closely guarded secret. But so far I haven't found anything to suggest that Takatori is related to any of the people I've been reading about."

"He might be related to one of them through a female relative and the name got lost when she married," Youji said thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair and contemplating. "Or he might have come from a family that wasn't prominent enough to make the books. Or it might not be a family thing at all. Or the rumors are just that, rumors that probably arose from all the horrible things he's done and there's no magic involved anywhere, in which case I've just wasted quite a lot of your time. You can decide which of those ideas you think most likely."

"I like any of the ones that don't involve me wasting my time," Omi said.

/-/-/-/

Unfortunately for Omi, Youji wasn't sure that they weren't both wasting their time. Over the next few days he talked to as many household and staff members as he could about the family in general, Aya in particular, and any events that had occurred before her disappearance. As with Manx, he received a wealth of information, none of which seemed terribly helpful. When Omi told him that the research into the history of magic didn't seem to be panning out, he asked the boy to start looking into the Fujimiya family history instead, hoping that there might be something helpful that Manx, for all her knowledge of recent history, didn't know about.

Youji also tried questioning Ran again, having him describe the time Aya was taken and everything they had done that day. He even made the redhead take him to the spot where she had been kidnapped. He got nothing out of it except for a sullen and irritable Ran, who didn't like to be reminded of the day his sister had disappeared, and an appreciation for how bold her kidnappers must have been. Making off with the girl that close to her own house must have been risky, to say the least.

A few days passed in this fashion, and Youji still felt no nearer to any solution. What he was looking for, he wasn't exactly sure, but he couldn't avoid the feeling that there was something important that he was missing or overlooking. In desperation, he tried to talk to Ran about his family history again, only to meet with a closed door and an order of, "Go away!" when he tried the redhead's room.

"Ran, don't be an ass, I need to talk to you," Youji called to him through the door.

"What about?" came the grudging reply.

"Your family."

From the other side of the door, Youji heard Ran snort. "You probably know more about them than I do right now. Go away."

"All right, what if I said I just wanted to talk?" Youji said, getting frustrated with speaking to a panel of dead wood instead of an actual person.

"Go talk to Ken," Ran said. "He probably wants the company more than me now." There was a remorseful note in his voice as he said it that told Youji there was more to it than that.

"Coward," he muttered, wondering what exactly Ran had said to Ken this time to cause a falling out. "Sending me to deal with your problems."

There was no answer from the other side of the door, so after a moment, Youji gave up and went in search of Ken as Ran had suggested.

/-/-/-/

It was not as difficult to find Ken as Youji had anticipated it would be. The young man had somehow or other managed to locate the liquor cabinet and had purloined a bottle of something brown and alcoholic. Whiskey, Youji guessed. He hadn't bothered with a glass, but sat perched somewhat precariously on a windowsill in the study, taking occasional sips straight from the bottle as he gazed out into the gardens without really seeing them. All in all, Ken looked incredibly glum.

"You know," Youji said, sidling up and dragging a chair over so that he could sit down near the gloomy young man, "speaking from personal experience, it's usually not a good idea to drink alcohol if you're already feeling unhappy."

"That doesn't seem to stop you from doing it," Ken noted, not bothering to look at his newly-arrived companion.

'Score one for Ken,' Youji thought. Deciding to ignore the barb altogether, he said, "I'm guessing that you and Ran had a falling out of some kind."

Ken snorted. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"That fact that Ran is in his room sulking is a tip off," Youji said blandly.

"He's been sulking since we got here," Ken said, sounding rather bitter and a little angry. "How can you tell the difference?"

"Is that what this is about?" Youji asked.

Ken made an angry noise somewhere deep in his throat and turned around until he was sitting facing Youji. The somewhat clumsy nature of his movements made Youji wonder exactly how much of the bottle he'd emptied. He didn't have much time to wonder about it however, since Ken began speaking, demanding Youji's attention. "The minute we got here, he started acting weird. It's like he's a lake. He was starting to warm up enough that I thought I might like to get in a little deeper, and then he just suddenly froze over on me. And now, no matter how hard I stomp on the surface, I can't make a crack, and I'm not sure it's a good idea to keep trying."

Youji made a mental note to remember for future reference that Ken tended to get somewhat poetic and metaphorical when drunk.

"So I went to go talk to him today," Ken went on, unaware of Youji's thoughts. "I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do to help, you know? But he just blew me off. He was rude about it too. Asked what business it was of mine. What business is it of mine!" Ken repeated incredulously.

"You know," Youji said casually, "he might not ask such stupid questions if you would just let him know you were interested in him."

Ken jerked in surprise and nearly fell off the windowsill. "You know about that?"

"Who doesn't?" Youji said carelessly.

"Ran, apparently," Ken muttered darkly.

"So tell him," Youji said, making it sound like the simplest thing in the world.

"I can't do that!" Ken looked aghast at the very idea.

"Why not?" Youji asked.

Ken stared back at him, brown eyes wide. "What would I say to him?"

"What do you mean, what would you say to him? Haven't you ever told a man that you like him before?"

Ken ducked his head, but while his shaggy hair obscured his eyes, it couldn't hide the blush creeping up his cheeks.

As the silence stretched on, Youji began to realize the implications. "Ken, how long have you known that you... uh... were interested in other guys?"

"Since I was old enough to be interested in anyone," Ken answered, stubbornly not looking at him.

"And you've never once propositioned a man?"

"No," Ken answered, sounding as if the word was dragged from him unwillingly.

Youji couldn't help it, he gaped. "Ken, how old are you?" he asked.

"Nineteen," came the sullen answer.

"And in all that time, you never... not even once?"

"I couldn't, okay?" Ken snapped defiantly, raising his head to glare at Youji.

"Why not?" Youji wanted to know.

"Because I'd have lost my job, that's why!" Ken shot back. "The man I used to work for didn't think highly of stuff like that. Do you think for one minute that if he'd known I was interested in other men he'd have let me stay on and train his two precious little boys? No! He'd have claimed I was a danger to the children and booted me out first chance he got!"

"Why? Are you interested in children?" Youji asked innocently.

"Ew! No!" Ken cried, looking affronted at the very idea. "But that doesn't matter. That's just how some people think. And knowing how my luck tends to flow," he added gloomily, "Ran is one of them."

Youji blinked and wondered how on earth he was supposed to keep up with Ken's moods. The young man had managed to go from angry to depressed in less than two seconds.

"Well," Youji said after a moment or two of silence, "You'll have to talk to Ran eventually. And sooner is better than later. I need to talk to him, and right now I can't do that because he's too irritated after whatever fight you two had. So just go and try to make up with him at least, will you?"

Ken grunted. "What'd you need to talk to him about anyway?"

"His family history," Youji said. "Because right now I'm out of ideas about other things to check out."

"Well, I can tell you a little," Ken said, setting down the bottle at last and giving Youji whatever the alcohol had left of his attention.

"You?" Youji was surprised.

Ken shrugged. "Ran told me some stuff about his family that week we stayed with Omi. Not much, but a little."

"Anything interesting?" Youji asked, thinking that this was likely to be a repeat of what he had already heard from other people.

"Not really," Ken said. "His father's lived here forever and he didn't know much about his mother."

That caught Youji's attention. "Ran doesn't know about his own mother?" he said.

"Well, of course he knew her, he just didn't know family history and stuff like that about her," Ken clarified.

"Really," You said, looking thoughtful. "That's strange. I would expect Manx not to know much, since she's from the other side of the family, but Ran..."

Ken shrugged again. "He said she didn't like to talk about it."

"Interesting," Youji muttered half to himself.

"You don't think it's important, do you?" Ken said, eyeing him dubiously.

"Maybe not," Youji agreed. "But it's strange. If nothing else it should probably be looked into." And he made a mental note to himself to ask Omi to do just that.

/-/-/-/

"Ran's mother?" Omi said, looking up from his current reading in surprise.

Youji nodded. "I thought that the lack of information I was getting about her was simply because she was unimportant, but now I'm starting to wonder if maybe it's because no one knew anything about her other than her name."

Omi's brow furrowed as he considered that. "Well, it may be nothing, but it is a little strange now that you mention it that no one should know anything at all about her. And if nothing else, I suppose we should look into her history just to be thorough. Goodness knows I've spent long enough researching Ran's father and his family. What's her maiden name?"

"I believe her family name before she married was Hanashite," Youji said.

"Hanashite..." Omi repeated, frowning. He looked at Youji seriously. "I've read that name somewhere."

"Really?" Youji said, trying not to let himself get too excited. Omi read an awful lot, after all. "So maybe she did come from a rich or prominent family after all."

But Omi was shaking his head. "I've read that name recently," he muttered. "I know I have. Now where was it?" And before Youji could say anything else, he was up and scouring the shelves, pulling down books apparently at random. Selecting a stack of them, he came back over to the table where Youji was sitting.

"These are the ones I've looked at in the past few days," he said by way of explanation as he threw the pile on the table.

Youji just nodded and slid his chair back a little to avoid the avalanche the books made as they slipped from the stack and cascaded across the wooden surface.

Throwing himself back into his seat, Omi attacked one of the books before him, flipping through it quickly for a few minutes and then discarding it abruptly, apparently not having found what he was looking for. He repeated this process with the next book, and the next. Youji sat quietly and watched, knowing that unless Omi directed him to a specific task, he would simply get in the way if he tried to help now.

Finally, Omi seemed to find what he was looking for. He paused on one of the books he'd grabbed and sat silently for a minute, reading intently. Then he raised wide blue eyes to Youji's. "Youji," he said, "do you remember how you said you thought there must be something special about Aya to make her worth holding onto?"

"Yes," Youji said, rising from his seat and coming around to look at what Omi was reading. The expression on Omi's face spoke to him of possibilities, of a breakthrough, but also of something potentially dangerous.

"I think I've found what you were talking about."

Tbc...

Author's Note: Yes, I know, a cliffhanger of sorts. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up sooner. Of course, some of that will depend on whether or not I manage to find a job, so I make no promises.


	15. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Note: This story is set in a world that is entirely of my own making because there will eventually be elements of fantasy in it.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 14

Somehow, he always ended up back here.

Ran sighed heavily as he tied his horse's reins to a nearby tree branch and stared through the trees towards the spot where Aya had been taken. For some reason, he had found himself drifting back to this place day after day since Youji had made him come here. Part of it was an effort to avoid the others, since he hadn't been feeling much like dealing with people lately. Something else drew him, however, and he wasn't quite sure what. Guilt was the most likely culprit. When he'd left home to look for Aya, he had hoped not to return without her. Standing here now without her made him wonder what exactly he'd been doing with the past six years of his life.

'Wandering around and picking up stray companions, apparently.'

That thought prompted him to think of Ken. He knew he really should have apologized before he left for snapping at him and being such an antisocial twit the past few days. After all, Ken had been trying to help. But depression seemed to have overtaken Ran, and he wasn't sure that anyone could help at this point. So instead he chose to wander by himself back to a spot that only brought back painful memories instead of enjoying the company offered to him.

'Maybe I truly am a masochist at heart,' he thought.

"You know," a somewhat nasal and unfamiliar voice answered, "I might have to agree with you on that one."

Spinning around in anger and alarm, for he had not heard anyone approach, Ran found himself faced with a young man who looked to be a little older than him. He had the sort of orangey red hair that made children crack jokes about carrot heads, and his green eyes were bright with an intense light that Ran wasn't sure he liked. It seemed like an alarming mixture of amusement and malice, and it was directed at him.

"Of course," the stranger went on, giving a smirk that matched the expression in his eyes, "I suppose I shouldn't complain, since it makes my life easier. And you even came back to the exact same spot. There's something appropriate about that."

"Who are you?" Ran demanded, one hand reaching instinctively for his sword. With dismay, he remembered that he hadn't carried it with him on this particular outing. He hadn't thought to need it this close to his own house.

The stranger's smile just widened. "What, don't you remember me?" he asked.

"No," Ran said, his voice low and angry. "You are on my property, and I would thank you to leave immediately."

"Can't do that, I'm afraid," the man said. "I've got some business to take care of first."

Then suddenly, before Ran could react, the man was right in front of him and a pair of hands had reached out to wrap around his neck, squeezing painfully. As he choked and fought back, clawing at the grip, he couldn't help feeling that this whole situation was dreadfully familiar.

As if reading his thoughts, the stranger smirked again. "We do seem to have been in this situation before," he said.

Even in its oxygen starved state, Ran's brain still made the connection. This was the man from six years ago, the attacker whose face he had never seen. The one who had tried to throttle him while his golden-eyed accomplice disabled and made off with Aya. The one who probably would have killed him if not ordered to stop.

The one who was probably going to kill him now.

Anger seized him suddenly. He couldn't let this man who had deprived him of his sister win like that. Lashing out, he drove a knee up towards his opponent's crotch. It was not a gesture he would normally have used on another man, or anyone else for that matter, but under the circumstances he felt the action was justified. Unfortunately, the man seemed to sense his intent and, releasing him, dodged the blow.

"Feisty, aren't we," he said, grinning as he watched Ran try to catch his breath. "I have to say, it was much easier to do that when you were still much shorter than me."

Ran glared at him as malevolently as he could while still panting. "Where's Aya?" he demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know," the stranger said. "Of course, you could always find out if you surrendered and agreed to come with me."

"Or," Ran snarled, "I could subdue you and make you tell me."

The man laughed unpleasantly. "Try if you like," he said.

Ran lunged at him, but again the man reacted too quickly for him. The next thing he knew, he'd been seized by the throat again and his head slammed into a nearby tree trunk. Pain blossomed at the back of his skull, and he had to fight not to let the world turn black. As he felt the man draw him forward to slam him back again, Ran had to wonder whether it was still worth it to fight a battle he was obviously losing. Another hit would surely render him unconscious. Perhaps he should simply succumb now and hope that he really would get to see his sister at the end of all this.

The next blow never came, however. The hands holding him released him suddenly, and he staggered as the stranger backed away quickly. Not quickly enough, however, to evade the fist aimed at his jaw. As the man stumbled back, Ran stared, almost without comprehending, at the hand that had just knocked his attacker back. His eyes trailed up the arm attached to it, and then to the face and brown eyes filled with fury.

Ken.

Those eyes fixed on him, and there was worry in them as Ken's mouth moved. He was asking Ran something, but Ran's head was still ringing from the pain, and he wasn't sure what was being said. Then Ken was yelling at the stranger, and he had pulled a dagger out from somewhere on his person and was advancing with it menacingly. The stranger, who was evidently unarmed, seemed to decide that this was more than he had bargained for, and with a last scowl directed at the two of them, he turned and left. Ken made as if to follow, but Ran reached out and grabbed his arm, more to steady himself than to detain him. Even that support wasn't enough, however, and Ran found himself tumbling towards the ground at an alarming speed.

As he fell through the blackness and the pain, he thought he heard Ken shouting his name.

/-/-/-/

He must not have been unconscious for very long, for when he came to he was sitting in the saddle and heading back towards his house. Ken was seated immediately behind him, his arms wrapped around him to both support him and reach the reins.

"You awake?" Ken asked, having felt him shift ever so slightly.

"Yes," Ran said, twisting his neck to look back at Ken's face.

"How are you feeling?" Ken asked, his brown eyes still reflecting worry.

Ran reached up and gingerly probed the back of his head with a finger. There was a lump there that still hurt, and he would probably have to bathe later to get the blood out of his hair, but at least the bleeding seemed to have stopped and the pain was bearable. "I'll live," he said simply.

"Glad to hear it," Ken said. "Any idea who that jerk was that attacked you?"

"He's one of the ones who took Aya," Ran growled.

Ken seemed shocked by the answer. "You're sure? How could you tell?"

"I'm sure. Some of the things he said to me confirmed it," Ran said.

"What's he doing coming after you now?" Ken asked.

"I have no idea," Ran said.

"Maybe it's a sign that you're getting closer," Ken said, sounding excited at the thought. "Maybe he's trying to scare you off."

Ran just snorted. "Scare me off of what? How can I be getting closer when I'm right back where I started, almost literally?"

Ken shrugged. "It's just an idea."

They rode on for a moment in silence.

"How did you find me?" Ran asked after a few moments.

"I... wanted to talk to you about something, but you weren't in you room, so I asked around the household to see if anyone knew where you'd gone. One of the grooms said you went out riding, so I borrowed a horse and went along the main road hoping I'd catch you on the way. Then I saw you horse by the road and found you."

Ran nodded and noticed for the first time that there was indeed another horse trailing behind them, its reins tied to the saddle of his horse.

Ken noticed him looking and said, "I figured I'd better put your horse in front after it tried to bite the other one. How is it you always end up with the mean horses?"

Ran smiled a rather bitter smile. "Maybe their temperament matches mine." He sighed. "I should have come by earlier to talk to you. I didn't mean to snap at you earlier. I think it's just this place and the inactivity getting to me. When we were out traveling, at least I could tell myself I was doing **something**."

"It's okay," Ken said. "I understand."

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Ran asked.

Ken looked away, and his cheeks went slightly pink. "Oh... I'll tell you when we get back."

Ran wondered at the blush, but decided not to press the matter, and the rest of the ride back passed in silence.

When they had reached the house and passed the horses off to the grooms, Ken insisted on dragging him up to his room and getting a better look at his head. Ran, sensing the undercurrents of concern, allowed this without any complaints.

"It doesn't look too bad," Ken said, trying to cautiously push Ran's hair out of the way without touching the injury itself. "But it's still lucky for you that I came along."

"Very lucky," Ran agreed.

Ken had evidently finished examining his head, as he moved to stand in front of Ran, looking him in the eye seriously.

"You're gonna have to be careful from now on," he said. "What if that guy tries again?"

"I'll be sure to carry a weapon with me from now on," Ran said. "And I rather hope he does try. He might be able to lead us to Aya."

Ken frowned. "Maybe, but it's still dangerous. He already hurt you once. You even passed out."

"Ken, I'm fine," Ran said, a little exasperated. "He only did that much damage because I wasn't prepared for him. Now I know better."

"You passed out," Ken repeated. "I... I was worried, okay? I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"Nothing bad is going to happen to me," Ran said, trying to sound reassuring.

Something hardened in Ken's eyes. "You're right, it won't, not if I have anything to say about it." And before Ran could react, Ken had surged forward and clumsily pressed his lips against Ran's.

Ran sat stock still, even after Ken drew back. Then he slowly raised one hand to his mouth. "Was this what you wanted to talk to me about earlier?" he asked.

"Yes," Ken answered, staring at him with a mixture of defiance and terror.

"I see," Ran murmured, still a little dazed by this turn of events.

Ken stared at him for a heartbeat, and then his shoulders slumped. "You see, huh? Is that all?" He turned and made as if to leave the room, but Ran caught his wrist.

"No, that's not all," he said, and then pulled Ken to him and kissed him.

When they broke apart for the second time, they simply stared at each other for a moment, and then Ken attacked him. While it was hardly a hostile attack, the shear force and energy behind it were enough to leave Ran breathless. They fumbled around with each other's clothes as Ken dragged him towards the bed growling out some wordless request that Ran couldn't have refused if he'd tried. Everything was new and exciting, from the feel of another person's skin beneath his hands to the small, animal noises Ken made in encouragement. His world was awash in sensation, and Ran gave into it willingly.

Afterwards, as they together in a tangled mess, Ran started to chuckle softly.

"What?" Ken asked.

"Nothing," Ran said. "I just think I finally figured out why you were so willing to follow me even when I was making an ass of myself."

"Of course," Ken said, sounding drowsy. He shifted until he was tucked against Ran's side with his head on Ran's shoulder. "I'd follow you to hell if you asked me to."

Ran felt his mouth go dry, and he swallowed convulsively, lifting a hand to hold Ken's head to him. It was both awing and a little frightening to be told that he had that much power over another person.

"Well then," he finally said, "I must be sure to never ask you."

/-/-/-/

Crawford was completely unsurprised when Schuldich returned alone and empty handed. "You were doomed to fail in this attempt," was all he said.

"Well if you bloody well saw that, why the hell didn't you tell me?" Schuldich snapped. His jaw still ached, as did his pride, and he was not inclined to be in the best of moods.

"I did not see that particular outcome until after you had left," Crawford said in a tone full of the sort of patience one shows a slow child.

Schuldich snarled something half incomprehensible about that being no good to anyone and went to a corner of their camp to sulk, keeping his back deliberately and pointedly turned on Crawford.

"I had him," he muttered angrily to himself. "He was mine. I would have brought him back here with no trouble, if not for that other bastard."

"It seems we miscalculated," Crawford murmured, half to himself. "I had not counted on him having companions."

"Great," Schuldich muttered, still not turning to face Crawford. "You miscalculate, and I'm the one who comes back bruised."

"Stop your whining," Crawford ordered. "This is hardly the end. So he has an accomplice. So what? So do you. I'm sure Farfarello can deal with his friend while you take care of him."

Farfarello, who had until that point been sitting silently at the edge of the camp engaged in his own contemplations, turned at the sound of his name.

"How about it, Farfarello?" Schuldich asked. "Think you can handle the jerk who did this to me?" He indicated his bruised jaw with one hand.

Farfarello just gave him a feral grin in answer.

"Good," Crawford said. "We'll wait for an opportunity and try again. One way or another, we will return with that boy."

Tbc...

Author's Note: To anyone who cares, I may be missing in action for a while. Between my new job and grad school applications, I'm not likely to get much writing done until December at the earliest. So don't be shocked if updates are slow.


	16. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Eventual Ran/Ken, others are still up in the air

Rapunzel: Oh great and powerful muse. I make you this humble offering. (Holds up a bag of dark chocolate balls). Now, come to me.

Muse: Yeah, right. You call that an offering?

Rapunzel: Fine. (Sighs and digs through the fridge for the bar of 71 percent dark chocolate she got for Christmas) Is this better?

Muse: What's this you say? You want another chapter of the Weiss fic, you say? No problem!

Humble beta: (Sneaks in and steals the bag of dark chocolate balls.)

And thus, another chapter was finished.

Blood Summons

By Rapunzel

Chapter 15

It was amazing how one little act had the power to change nothing and yet everything.

When Ran woke up the next morning next to a still-sleeping Ken, the world was not drastically different from the way it had been the previous day. He was still at his estate, still with an unknown assailant pursuing him, and Aya was still missing. And yet, despite the fact that none of that had changed, the world somehow seemed a slightly brighter and more hopeful place. He couldn't explain the feeling, but it was definitely there. Even the faint throbbing in his head left over from the previous day's attack wasn't enough to dispel it. It caused him to smile and lean down to brush hair away from Ken's face and plant a kiss on his forehead before rising and leaving the bed. It even prompted him to return Omi's cheerful "Good morning!" when he reached the breakfast table, albeit with slightly less enthusiasm.

Omi and Youji both stared at him as though he'd grown another head.

"What?" Ran asked, pausing in filling his plate as he noticed their scrutiny.

Omi recovered himself first. "Nothing!" he said brightly, evidently deciding that Ran's good mood was a blessing not to be questioned.

Youji, on the other hand, continued to stare at him. The look on his face had shifted from a surprised, who-are-you-and-what-have-you-done-with-Ran look to something more contemplative.

"Where's Ken?" he finally asked.

"Still asleep, I believe," Ran answered.

The thoughtful look vanished and a knowing and satisfied smirk spread slowly over Youji's face. "Is he, now? Tired him out, did you?"

Ran froze with his first bite of food halfway to his mouth and tried hard not to blush. His pale complexion worked against him and he failed miserably. "How..." he sputtered, and then deciding that that would be tantamount to a confirmation, switched to, "What makes you say that?"

"I had a little talk with our dear Ken yesterday," Youji said, still smirking in a manner that made Ran want to hurl the plate at his face. "It seems he decided to take my advice."

"Advice?" Omi repeated, looking back and forth between the two of them, clearly wondering what essential piece of information he'd missed in all of this.

"Remember when we went looking for Ran yesterday and couldn't find him?" Youji asked. "I believe it was because he was otherwise occupied at the time."

Omi finally seemed to realize what Youji was hinting at, if the blush creeping up his cheeks was any indication.

Ran, searching desperately for a way to change the subject, lit upon something Youji had just said. "You were looking for me yesterday?"

Omi straightened, and his color went back to normal. "Yes. We think we may have found something important, but I was going to wait until Ken got here to discuss it."

Almost as if on cue, Ken entered, fully dressed and looking exceedingly cheerful. "Good morning!" he greeted the others.

"First Ran, now Ken," Youji said. "If I didn't know the real cause, I'd swear it was infectious."

"Huh?" Ken tilted his head and gave Youji a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing," Youji said quickly.

As Ken stared at him suspiciously, Omi quickly cut in with, "And now that Ken's here, we can talk about what Youji and I discovered."

"You found something?" Ken asked hopefully. "Something about Aya?" Turning to Ran, he added, "See, maybe we are getting closer."

Ran frowned. "Then why did he go after me and not Youji or Omi?"

"What's this?" Youji demanded. "Who went after you?"

Ran laid out the details of the attack on him the previous day, and Omi and Youji listened, their faces grave and serious. When he'd finished, Omi said, "It's strange that it should happen now, but I'm not sure how it relates to the discovery that Youji and I made. As you said, if the point was to prevent us from finding information, why not go after Youji or myself? Still, the timing is odd."

"What is it you've found?" Ran asked.

"A motive," Youji said, "or at least a probable motive for why your sister was taken. It also gives us a new place to search for information about her whereabouts."

"Do you know anything about where your mother lived before she married your father?" Omi asked. "It might not be important, but it could help us."

Ran frowned. "She never mentioned any specific place. She never seemed to want to talk about it. All I know was that she came from somewhere south of here." Then, seeing the significant look the other two exchanged, he asked, "Why this sudden interest in my mother?"

"Do you know anything about families with magical predispositions?" Omi asked. When Ran shook his head, he continued, "Apparently, all that means is that a particular family was associated with a particular magical ability, even if members of that family were not magically gifted in any other way. I read that while trying to find information about Takatori, and it didn't occur to me how important it was until Youji mentioned your mother's maiden name."

"Hanashite?" Ran said. "But what does that have to do with anything? Don't tell me you think she's from one of those families."

"I'm not sure she's from the same family exactly, but I did find that name in the book. Apparently, members of the Hanashite family were known for their ability to summon and control demons."

Utter silence followed this revelation. Finally Ran said, "You're joking," in a very flat voice.

"We're not," Youji said. "You can read the book yourself if you like. And you have to admit, when you remember the rumors about Takatori being connected to dark magic somehow, it does start to make a little more sense."

"Wait a minute," Ken said. "I thought we already agreed that those rumors weren't really true and there was no magic left in the world. Wouldn't the families lose their talent then?"

"We don't know for sure," Omi said. "It's possible that the few people who do practice magic simply keep quiet about it. But if there still is magic, and if Ran's mother really is a descendant of the family mentioned in the book, and if Takatori really does practice dark magic, it explains what he would want with Aya."

"I don't know," Ken said, looking doubtful. "That's a whole lot of ifs."

"I have to admit, it's a tenuous connection," Omi said. "But on the other hand, the fact that Ran's mother refused to ever say where she was from is interesting. It suggests that she was trying to hide from something or someone. If we knew more about where she came from, we might be able to figure out where Aya's gone."

Abruptly, Ran rose, shoving his chair back forcefully and leaving the table. He marched out of the room with an angry, determined stride, leaving the others staring after him with apprehension. Ken was the first to follow after him, muttering something worried about having upset him, and after a moment and a meaning-laden glance at each other, Youji and Omi followed.

They found Ran in a small study room in the eastern corner of the house, where he stood before an old desk, searching through a ring of keys. Finally locating whichever one he had been looking for, he inserted it into the lock on the desk drawer and turned it. Opening the drawer, he glanced at the papers inside, then turned to face his audience.

"When my parents died, all of their personal papers, anything that didn't directly pertain to the estate or myself and Aya, were gathered up and put here. I have no idea what may be in here, as I have never looked. When I was young, I never felt the need, and when I was older, I never had the time. However, you are free to search as you please."

"That's very kind of you to allow us the privilege," Omi said. "But wouldn't you prefer to look through something so personal yourself?"

Ran's mouth thinned down to a grim line. "Not right now," was all he said before he turned on his heel and, with the same determined stride, left the room.

The other three looked after him, not quite sure what to do.

"I don't think he's taking all this very well," Omi said sadly.

"Well, imagine if you suddenly found out that your mother could summon demons," Youji said.

Ken frowned. "If you're right about this whole thing, doesn't that mean that Ran and Aya should be able to summon demons too?"

The three of them looked at each other in silence for a moment, digesting the implications of that, and then Omi and Youji both dove for the desk and its contents while Ken ran out of the room in pursuit of Ran.

/-/-/-/

"Ran!" Ken called, chasing the redhead out the front door and down the steps. Ran didn't stop, but he slowed his pace a bit, enabling Ken to catch up to him. Reaching him, Ken caught his arm and endeavored to steer him back towards the house.

"C'mon," he said. "I know you're upset, but you shouldn't go wandering out alone. Remember what happened yesterday?"

Belatedly, Ran realized that, not having planned to go out, he hadn't bothered to take his sword with him again. He sighed heavily. "You're right," he said, allowing himself to be steered. "It's just... I can't believe that she could be a part of such a thing and never mention it to us."

"Maybe she was just waiting for you guys to be old enough," Ken said. "Or maybe she wasn't really a part of anything. Youji and Omi might be wrong you know."

"I know," Ran said, giving a humorless laugh. "I'm not sure which I'm more afraid of, that they're right, or that they're wrong. If they're wrong, we're back to having nothing to go on. But if they're right..." he shuddered.

"Look at it this way," Ken said. "If they're right, then Aya's probably still alive. They wouldn't kill her if she was valuable."

"Yes, but now they've started pursuing me," Ran pointed out. "Why begin now, unless something terrible has happened to Aya and I'm the next best substitute?"

"I don't know," Ken said. "Why take Aya and not you in the first place?"

"I wish they had taken me," Ran said gloomily.

"Don't say that," Ken said seriously. He wrapped his arms around Ran's neck and looked into his eyes with a mixture of fear and determination. "You'd better not say that, because I'm not letting anyone take you anywhere."

Sighing heavily, Ran wrapped his arms around Ken and leaned down to rest his head in the crook of Ken's shoulder. Yet even as he stood there feeling Ken's hands in his hair, Ken's breath against his neck, feeling support and comfort radiating from his newfound lover, he couldn't help but wonder about his sister and whether he would soon share her fate.

/-/-/-/

It took most of the morning to divide up the contents of the desk, and by the time lunch came, Youji and Omi were barely ready to start reading through the papers they had determined belonged to Ran's mother. Their only consolation was that there were relatively few of them, especially compared to his father's mementos and letters, which had been numerous.

Omi frowned at the small pile before them which represented their morning's work. "She didn't have much in the way of personal papers, did she?"

"Don't complain," said Youji, who by this time was thoroughly sick of sorting through papers. "At least it makes our job easier."

"Unless there's nothing useful in here, in which case our job is very difficult indeed."

Youji didn't answer, opting instead to reach for the pile and start perusing its contents.

Most of the papers proved to be letters, and all of the letters were from the same person. Youji didn't recognize the name, and the nearest he could place the address was that it was somewhere far to the south of their current location. That made sense, since the limited information Ran had suggested that his mother came from that area. The letters were spaced, he noticed, one every couple of years. It seemed a little odd to him that the woman's sole correspondent should write to her so rarely, but it was even odder to think that Ran's mother had only bothered to save the ones from such regular intervals. Feeling a stirring of hope, he opened one of the older ones.

"My dearest child,

I trust this letter finds you well. I won't bore you with the gossip and the comings and goings around here. I shall simply say that for the most part, things continue quietly and without incident. I am well, and the rest of the household get along tolerably enough. It is a shame you could not see the flowers this spring; they were quite lovely.

All my love,

Auntie Keiko"

Youji frowned as he finished the letter, then reached for the next one in the stack, slowly working his way down the pile. Most all of them continued along the lines of the first one. They were all short and to the point, only stating that all was well and occasionally commenting on some inane occurrence. They all began "My dearest child," and were all signed "Auntie Keiko."

"I've never seen a correspondent with so little to say," Omi remarked, having read the letters over Youji's shoulder.

"Nor I," Youji said. "Especially since it's a woman. They usually go on forever."

"It's a bit strange too, don't you think," Omi said, "that there is never any mention of them meeting or even of any letters being sent in return."

"Odd," You muttered, half to himself.

Omi held up the last letter, still sealed in its envelope. "Maybe there will be something in this one. It hasn't been opened, but it's from the same person."

"Probably just more of the same," Youji muttered, but he took the envelope and, breaking the seal, began to read.

"My dearest child,

At last, something exciting to report. The youngest daughter of the house, who as you know has been missing for some years, has been located at last. There's been quite a to-do about it here. I understand the weather where you are has been very bad lately. Please be careful, and be sure to find a safe place to wait out the storm.

All my love,

Auntie Keiko."

"Household news and weather," Youji mused. "Two very common topics, but she switches between them rather abruptly."

"She's not talking about the weather," Omi said with quiet certainty. "It's a warning. Not one of the other letters mentioned anything about a 'daughter of the house,' as she refers to her, but she obviously expects her reader to know the background. I think Ran's mother might be that daughter of the house, and this woman is trying to tell her that she's been found and to find a new place to hide."

Youji looked at the letter, thinking over the implications. "Why on earth wasn't it opened?" he asked, scowling at it. "Warnings don't do any good if they're never heard."

Omi took the letter from Youji, glancing over it. "It's dated six years ago," he observed. "Ran's mother would already have been dead by then. I'm surprised her 'Auntie Keiko' didn't know that."

Youji's head whipped around to stare at Omi. "Six years ago, you said?"

"Yes. Why?"

"That would make it about the time Aya disappeared."

Omi's eyes widened. "You're right."

Youji eyed the letter in his hand, a grim look on his face. "Find Ran," he said.

/-/-/-/

Ran sighed heavily and glanced out of the corner of his eye at the brunet padding along beside him. When he had declared that he needed air and was heading out for a walk, he had also stated his intention to stay close to the house, but that hadn't stopped Ken from insisting on accompanying him. Surprisingly, Ran found that he didn't resent the intrusion on his privacy. He was glad to have Ken with him. If nothing else, it was an added measure of security, not to be alone. After the previous day's events, he had decided that taking chances was foolish, even so close to his own house, and he carried his sword this time. He knew that Ken was also armed, although his weapons were more discreet and less visible.

Quite aside from having another set of eyes and capable hands with him, Ran was glad of Ken's company. He hoped it would distract him from thinking about things he didn't want to, such as his mother and whatever secrets she had been hiding from him and the rest of his family. He couldn't help but wonder whether Omi's surmises about her were true. And if they were, had she ever told his father about her family history? Had she been the only one to know of the burden she was placing on her children simply by bringing them into the world, and had she ever really thought about it? Did she ever even know what her family was associated with?

"Hey," Ken reached over and poked him in the side. "You're brooding again."

"Sorry," Ran muttered distractedly.

Ken watched him for a moment as he frowned at the ground. "You say you're sorry, but you don't stop doing it," he observed.

Ran dragged his eyes up from the ground to meet Ken's. "I can't," he said. "I keep wondering if my mother even knew what she was, and if so, why she never said anything to us."

"She probably did know," Ken said. "After all, you said yourself it was like she was trying to hide from something. And she probably thought you were too young."

"Why even have children if you know you carry a curse like that?" Ran asked gloomily.

"Now that's not fair," Ken said, scowling at him a little. "Why shouldn't she want to have children? And are you saying you're sorry you exist? 'Cause I'm sure not."

"No," Ran said, "it's not that. It just seems reckless to me."

Ken shrugged. "She probably figured that she was safe, so you would be too. And anyway, it's not like you actually carried the family name. Maybe she thought being called Fujimiya would protect you."

"Maybe," Ran said, his tone doubtful.

Ken frowned. "You really need to stop brooding, 'cause I'm starting to have a hard time defending a woman I never met."

"Sorry," Ran said again. "You're probably right. I just can't help thinking about it."

"Well, then we might as well go see how Youji and Omi are coming along," Ken said. "Do you think they've found anything yet?"

"I doubt it," Ran said. "They're probably still sorting. There were a lot of papers in there."

"Well, maybe we should go help them," Ken said. "If you want to, that is."

Ran considered for a moment. None of his distraction strategies thus far had really succeeded in taking his mind off his mother, so he supposed there was nothing to be lost by simply facing the problem head on. "We might as well," he said. "Come on, let's head back."

"Let's not," said a familiar voice from behind them.

Ran and Ken both spun around instantly, their weapons in their hands before they had even completed the turn. Standing facing them with a smug smirk on his face was the red haired stranger from the previous day.

"My, my," he said, eyeing their weapons with more amusement than alarm. "A little jumpy today, aren't we? And I see you're both prepared this time. It's lucky for me that I am too." So saying, he made a kind of waving gesture and a second man stepped out from behind a nearby tree. His dark clothes contrasted sharply with his white hair and pale skin, and the scars littering his body as well as the eye patch covering one eye gave the impression of a man not to be trifled with.

The redhead pointed at Ken. "Just take care of that one for me, Farfarello, and I'll handle the rest," he said.

The man called Farfarello turned his single golden eye on Ken, and the gleam of pleased insanity in it was enough to make Ken take an involuntary step back. Then the redhead took a step towards Ran, and Ken forgot all about Farfarello and lunged for him instead.

The redhead, however, sidestepped the blow so easily and so quickly that Ran practically didn't see him move. He almost casually tripped Ken as he went by, sending him reeling just as Farfarello jumped forward to meet him. Ken barely managed to duck out of the way, turning what should have been a fatal strike into a gash along his upper left arm.

"What's the matter?" the redhead asked, sneering at Ken as he hastily backed away from Farfarello. "Did you think I would be easier to handle? I'll admit, you did manage to catch me off guard yesterday, but don't think you'll be lucky enough to have it happen twice."

He advanced towards Ken, and Ran, brandishing his sword, lunged at him. Two against one did not strike him as good odds, even for a fighter as skilled as Ken, and besides, Ran still felt he had the pay the red haired stranger back for the previous day. But his blade met only air as the man, somehow managing to anticipate his move, sidestepped it as neatly as he had evaded Ken earlier.

Ran quickly spun around, bringing himself back to face his opponent again. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ken and Farfarello locked in combat, each trying to strike the other with the long knives they fought with only to have their blows deflected. He only hoped that Ken would have the sense to concentrate on his fight and ignore Ran's. He and Farfarello seemed to be about evenly matched, and any slip of concentration on Ken's part might give his opponent the advantage and wind up with him getting seriously hurt.

'Just don't worry about protecting me, idiot, and concentrate on yourself,' Ran thought.

The problem, however, as he was quickly discovering, was that he could probably have used a little protection. While Ran hardly fancied himself a poor swordsman and his opponent seemed to be unarmed, he couldn't seem to score a hit on the man. All of his slashes and stabs were evaded with far more ease than should have been possible. Again and again he attacked, trying angles and tactics that he hadn't had to use for a long time, and still his every attempt was met with disappointment. The other man didn't even attempt to strike back at him, he simply continued to dodge, letting Ran wear himself out while he seemed to be expending only minimal effort. It was both frustrating and infuriating, and if the smirk on the other man's face was any indication, he knew it.

How long this state of affairs might have continued, Ran wasn't sure, but it was ended abruptly when a cold and eerily familiar voice ordered, "Schuldich, stop playing with him and just capture him."

Ran spun around to face the newcomer, shock and fury making him forget everyone else for a moment. He knew that voice and had been almost hoping to find its owner during his quest for Takatori to get his revenge on the man. And now here he was, standing before him. There was no mistaking those hard golden eyes. It was the man who had carried off his sister six years ago.

"Aw," Schuldich said, sounding almost whiny. "You take all the fun out of life."

Despite his complaint, he was quick to obey the man's orders, and a moment later a swift and well placed kick knocked Ran's hand open and sent his sword spinning out of his grasp. He made a desperate lunge after it, knowing after two encounters that hand-to-hand combat with the redhead was probably a mistake. However, before he could reach his weapon, his arm was grabbed and twisted painfully behind his back, and despite his struggles, Schuldich soon had him pinioned.

Somehow, in the midst of his own fight, Ken had noticed his plight, for he heard a frantic cry of "Ran!" followed by a spray of blood as Ken lashed out at Farfarello in desperation and managed to knock him back. He started towards them, fury written all over his face, only to have Farfarello leap into his path, the wound Ken had just dealt him having been dismissed as insignificant.

Both Schuldich and the other man turned to face the distraction, eyeing Ken appraisingly.

"This one's going to be troublesome," Schuldich said to his superior. "He's bound and determined to follow us, no matter what we do."

"You're sure?" The man asked.

Schuldich nodded. "He's not going to give up until he's dead."

Those golden eyes turned to survey Ken dispassionately through the glasses. "Very well. I had hoped to avoid unnecessary attention in this area, but if nothing else will stop him, then we may as well. Kill him, Farfarello."

The smile that spread over Farfarello's face suggested that he had been hoping for these orders. Ran, however, renewed his struggles. "No!" he yelled, straining desperately to get free, to reach his weapon, to make Ken run away, anything!

It was all in vain, however, and a moment later a sharp blow to the back of his neck sent him reeling down into darkness.

/-/-/-/

Farfarello barely noticed as Crawford slung the body of the unconscious redhead over his shoulder and headed off into the woods surrounding the house and its gardens. His attention was fixed on his prey, the agitated brunet who was currently casting wary looks at him alternated with desperate glances after his fallen companion. Foolish man. He'd just heard Crawford order his death; he should have been more concerned with himself.

As Crawford and Schuldich disappeared in the trees, the brunet made his move, lunging at Farfarello and then when he brought his blade up to meet the attack suddenly diving left, trying to slip around him. Disgusted, Farfarello realized that the man wasn't interested in fighting him anymore, only getting past him. Well that certainly took the fun out of things. If that was all he was going to do, perhaps killing him quickly was advisable.

Bringing up his knife, Farfarello tried to strike at the man's back as he dove past him. The brunet must have been watching him out of the corner of his eye, however, for he managed to roll out of the way. Farfarello used the moment it took the young man to climb back to his feet to plant himself between his opponent and the route his companions had taken. If the idiot was bound and determined to go after them, he would damn well fight for that privilege.

The brunet growled low in his throat and glared at him, hatred in his brown eyes. Good. Maybe this would turn out to be fun after all. Then his opponent lunged, and the two of them were locked in struggle once more. The man was good, Farfarello would grant him that. His blows were quick and well placed, and he was able to deflect most of the stabs aimed at him. However, he still couldn't quite contain his flinches whenever Farfarello managed to gash him, and he seemed confused that Farfarello didn't react whenever he managed to score a hit. It would take time, but given that slight advantage, Farfarello was sure that he could wear this man down enough to finish the job.

Or at least he would have been able to if they had been left to fight without interference.

The first Farfarello knew of the arrival of two more people was when he felt an impact against his right shoulder. Glancing down, he was a little surprised to note the end of a crossbow bolt sticking out. Looking up, he saw the source, a blond boy holding a crossbow aimed at him, and behind him, a taller man with something Farfarello couldn't see in his hand. Both of them were glaring death at him

'Schuldich,' he sent mentally, knowing his companion would hear him. 'There are two more of them. Can I deal with them the same way?'

'Sure,' came the disinterested reply. 'Just don't take too long. Now that we've got the boy, Crawford wants to get out of here as soon as possible.'

Farfarello was prevented from answering by a sudden blow to his chest. His conversation with Schuldich had caused him to neglect the brunet for a moment too long, and the man had slashed at him, cutting him almost to the bone and nearly knocking him over. He staggered back a few steps and glanced at the wound.

'Schuldich, I'm bleeding,' he sent. There was no trace of alarm in his mental voice, only a sort of detached fascination.

'How badly?' Schuldich asked.

Farfarello took another step back from his opponents and surveyed himself. 'It's kind of squirting in one place.'

'Idiot!' Schuldich sent back. 'Get out of there before you bleed to death!'

'But what about them?' Farfarello asked, eyeing the three young men with interest. The small blond, he noticed, was reloading his crossbow. That didn't worry him any. It would be fun, taking them down. They would at least put up a good fight, unlike most of the people he'd had to face recently.

There was a pause in the mental conversation. Evidently Schuldich was consulting Crawford, for after a moment he said, 'Crawford says it doesn't matter as long as you don't let them follow you. They have no idea where we're going, so they won't be able to follow.'

Farfarello continued to eye the other three, not entirely happy with that response. He would have liked to take them on and watch them bleed, and really, he didn't see what the problem was. He was bleeding; so what? The only reason it was important was because Schuldich always told him that it was and that he should always let the other man know when he was injured in a fight. He could have dealt with those three easily. But Schuldich thought of himself as being above everyone except Crawford in the chain of command, and he tended to get a little irritated when he was disobeyed.

So instead of moving to return the blow, Farfarello turned and ran for the trees.

The other three seemed surprised by this move, either because they hadn't expected him to run when he'd so adamantly stood his ground earlier, or because they hadn't expected him to move so fast with the injuries he had sustained. After a moment, however, they all leaped into action. He barely managed to dive behind a tree before another arrow thumped into it, and the tall man was already running after him. The brunet also jumped forward to pursue him. He was stopped, however, by the small blond, who grabbed his arm.

"You can't go chasing after him like this! You're bleeding everywhere!"

"Let me go!" the brunet hollered, struggling fiercely. "They took Ran! Let me go!"

Farfarello ignored them, concentrating on evading the man who was still following him. It wasn't too problematic. Despite his injuries, he was still fast on his feet, and either Schuldich or Crawford had had the foresight to leave his horse waiting for him. Once he reached it, it was easy. There was no way the man could keep up with him on foot, and he left his pursuer cursing in the dust. It was almost too easy.

He cast his mind back to the brunet, wondering at the man's adamant refusal to let him escape. The boy was right, he was bleeding rather profusely in several different places. Not that that would have stopped Farfarello, but he realized that most other people found it a deterrent. And the brunet hadn't even seemed to enjoy their fight that much. And yet he was still determined to go after him, even when he knew Farfarello might be leading him only to death.

Honestly, and people said he was crazy.

Tbc...

Author's Note: Ah, icky fight scenes. How I hate writing them.


	17. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz and its characters sadly do not belong to me.

Warnings: AU, eventual yaoi (it might take a while for me to get there), some violence

Pairings: Ran/Ken, Youji/Omi

Author's Notes: I know, I know, it's been quite a while since I updated (assuming anyone is still reading who cares), and my only excuse is that work and grad school decision making ate my time. Hopefully now that one of those processes at least is finished, updates may come more often. But don't hold your breath.

Chapter 16

It had been a struggle, but Omi finally managed to get Ken calm enough to return to the house without trying to bolt off after Ran every few seconds. Even then, he would hardly have described the young man's mental state as calm. Ken kept pacing, tugging at his hair, and muttering to himself and Omi about the bloody revenge he was going to exact on Ran's captors when he caught them.

Omi placated him as best he could by reassuring him that Youji would do his best to follow and capture Farfarello. Then, once he had managed to get Ken seated, he quickly handed him over to the servants to have his wounds tended to, grabbed his crossbow, and set off after Youji. There was a chance that in following the strange man who had attacked them, Youji was walking right into a trap, and if that were the case, Omi had no intentions of letting him go alone.

Thankfully, his dire forebodings did not prove to be true. Youji was perfectly unharmed when Omi found him. He was, however, angry and discouraged.

"He got away," he said when he saw Omi. "He had a horse waiting, and I couldn't keep up. I followed the trail to the main road, but that's as far as I was able to get. He stopped bleeding somewhere along the way, and once he made it to the main road, the tracks were just too hard to pick out from all the rest. I might be able to follow them if I could pick them up again in a less used area, but the best shot would be if they left the road again, and that could be miles from here."

"I'm not sure," Omi said. "There's enough traffic along the road that they probably won't want to use it much. They're a memorable bunch, if the one we saw was any indication, and it would be rather obvious to anyone passing that Ran's a captive. That would draw too much attention to them."

"I'm not sure they're worried about drawing attention any more," Youji said, frowning. "They made off with Ran right in front of his own house. That's hardly subtle."

"Well, if they aren't worried about it, it should be easier to follow them," Omi pointed out. "Come on, let's head back. We'll need horses of our own to do this properly, and we'd better tell Ken what's going on before he manages to bully the servants into letting him come out here himself."

Ken was indeed trying to do just that when Youji and Omi returned, and seeing them arrive without Ran only made him more agitated.

"Where's Ran?" he demanded the minute they were close enough for speaking.

Youji explained how Farfarello had managed to evade him. "We're going to get horses and follow as far as we can and maybe see if we can pick up the trail again, but it could take several days."

Ken nodded and stood up, brushing off Omi, who had been trying to check the bandages the servants had wrapped him in. "I'll go pack," he said.

"Ken, have you run mad?" Omi asked, trying to shoo his friend back into the chair. "Those aren't exactly light injuries you've got. I know you're anxious about Ran, but you're not in any state to be traveling."

The look Ken turned on him was so full of fury that Omi found himself taking a step back. "They took Ran," Ken snarled, something angry and animalistic in his voice. "You don't honestly expect me to just sit here and wait for them to bring him back, do you?"

"But..." Omi started to protest again.

"I've traveled when I've been injured before," Ken said. "If you want me to stay here, you'd better kill me. Otherwise, I'm going with you." And seeing Omi reaching out to try to stop him again, he wrenched himself away and made for his room, leaving Omi gazing fretfully after him.

"Youji..." Omi said, trying to appeal to his friend for help.

But Youji only shook his head. "He's dead serious, and I can't think of any way of trying to stop him that isn't going to involve violence of some kind, if not now, then later. Whatever we do to him, he's not going to stay incapacitated for long, and when he's able to get back on his feet again, he'll be mad as hell and ready to take it out on whatever poor soul happens to be near him. I think we'd better just take him at his word and let him come. At least if he's with us, we can try to make sure he doesn't strain himself too much."

Omi sighed heavily, but he had to admit that Youji had a point. "Well," he said finally, with a resigned note of despair in his voice, "I suppose we'd better go pack then."

/-/-/-/

"Gentlemen," Youji said gravely, "we appear to be at a bit of an impasse."

"I'll say," Ken muttered bitterly, scowling at the ground as if resentful that it refused to yield any usable tracks.

They had split up, each riding for hours in a chosen direction, but whoever their quarry were, they had hidden themselves well, either staying to portions of the road that were so heavily used that their tracks couldn't be distinguished, or covering their off-road tracks very carefully. When Youji, Omi, and Ken had returned to their appointed meeting place, none of them had anything to report but disappointment.

"We need to figure out at least a general direction if we're going to have any hope of catching them," Youji said. "Tracking doesn't seem to be doing any good at the moment. That having been said, what I propose is this. We use what little we know about where they might be headed and try to follow them that way."

"What do we know?" Ken asked, looking discouraged and angry.

"Well, we're making the assumption that Ran's mother was involved in all of this, and that she was fleeing from it when she settled here. So they should have taken her son to the place she came from."

"And we don't know where that is," Ken pointed out. "All we have to go on is south, and that's pretty broad. Too broad to track properly, anyway."

"Aha," Youji said. "That may be all you have to go on, but Omi and I came across something else when we were sorting through the papers."

"Ran's mother had a correspondent," Omi chimed in, and he quickly outlined the letters they had found to Ken, explaining their contents and the assumptions they had drawn from them.

"If we find this woman, she may be able to tell us exactly where Ran's mother came from, and therefore exactly where Ran has gone," Omi concluded.

Ken looked doubtful. "Are you even sure this woman is still alive?" he asked.

"No," Youji admitted, "but do you have a better idea? Right now, it's all we've got to go on, and it at least gets us going in the right direction, which is south. Unless you know something you're not telling us, I'd say we head that way and see what we can find."

Ken didn't look pleased with the idea, but he said, "I haven't got anything better to try."

"Well then," Youji said, "it's settled. We head south."

/-/-/-/

Aya slammed her book shut in disgust and laid her head on the desk. She was heartily sick of studying, and wished she could simply burn her books and be done with it. But it was no good, and she knew it. She might have gotten away with it in the short term; with Nagi as the only one of Takatori's guards left to watch her, chances were good she wouldn't be punished very severely. But eventually, the others would return, and then Schuldich would come and talk to her in that sickly sweet and persuasive way of his that left his words, said and unsaid, resonating in her head in a way she found mildly nauseating. That repetition would somehow manage to clear her head of everything else, and she would later find herself diligently at her books without quite knowing how it had happened. She hated those moments, hated the utter powerlessness she felt at her inability to control herself and hated Schuldich even more for inflicting that feeling on her.

There seemed to be some sort of commotion outside of her room, and Aya cautiously raised her head off of the desk to listen. There were voices, the sounds growing louder as they approached her door, and after a moment she was able to pick out the nasal tones of Schuldich and the firm commanding voice of Crawford. Wonderful. The rest of her tormentors had returned from wherever it was Takatori had sent them this time. They had already been gone for several weeks, but she had still hoped for at least a few more days with only Nagi to deal with. While he could hardly be described as friendly and he rarely ever spoke to her, he didn't threaten, cajole, or order her around the way the others did. He was utterly indifferent to her, but he wasn't cruel or hostile, and so she found him preferable to any of the others.

As she had expected, the voices outside increased in volume until they were right outside, culminating in a knock on her door. She bade them enter with a weary and sour call of, "Come in," and the door opened to reveal Crawford.

"Still at your books," he observed, seeing the pile on her desk. "Good." He nodded in satisfaction. "Our employer has requested that we make sure that you improve your performance on your next speaking test."

"I learn as fast as I learn, and no faster," Aya said defensively. "And I'm not sure that confining me and isolating me is the best way to make me learn." She eyed him warily as she spoke. Schuldich was standing at his shoulder, and given the other talents the man seemed to possess, it wouldn't have been a stretch to suppose he knew exactly what she was thinking. She tried to keep her mind as blank as possible, not wanting to reveal what she suspected they already knew, that she was perfectly capable of speaking without an accent, but refused to do so, partially out of a desire to see her brother, and partially out of sheer perversity.

"I rather thought you might say something like that," Crawford said, a half smile on his face, and Aya felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. That smile rarely boded well for her. "That is why our employer has requested that we remind you that yours isn't the only welfare riding on the results of your next test." And so saying, he stepped to one side, and Schuldich and Farfarello stepped forward, dragging between them the unconscious form of a human body. The light hit them, and Aya gasped.

It had been six years since she'd seen her brother, but she would have known him anywhere. He had let his hair grow longer around his face, and he had obviously gotten taller and finished the process of filling out that he had been starting when she'd been taken, but his face was still as she remembered it. Underneath the dirt and what looked suspiciously like bruises were features that were a more masculine version of hers. As she stared in shock, he seemed to stir, his face contorting briefly in pain before he opened his eyes. For a moment he simply stared dazedly around, but then he caught sight of her.

"Aya!" That hoarse and desperate voice was much deeper than the one of her memory, but the tones were still unmistakably those of her brother.

"Ran..." Aya whispered, too shocked to do anything more than stare at him. All these years, all the threats against her brother, and whenever she had asked to see him, she had been rebuffed. She had begun to think that she would never see him again, and yet here he was, without so much as a request on her part. Why?

"Aya!" Ran began to struggle, trying desperately to pull his arms free from the hold Schuldich and Farfarello had on him, trying to pull himself forward towards her.

"That's enough," Crawford's decisive voice cut through her shock. "She's convinced now, I think. Take him back."

Schuldich and Farfarello tightened their hold on their prisoner and began to drag him away, despite his tugging and attempts to dig his feet into the floor.

"Wait!" Aya cried, finally roused from her stupor. She rushed towards the door, towards her brother, one arm reaching out desperately to waylay him. "Wait, Ran!"

Her outstretched arm was caught by Crawford just as Schuldich kicked the door to her room, slamming it shut. She tried to reach it and open it, but found herself jerked abruptly backwards, Crawford's grip on her arm hard enough to bruise. She turned on him and tried to strike him with the fist of her free hand, but he simply caught her other wrist and dragged her over to her desk chair, releasing her with a shove that forced her back into it.

"Think carefully now," he said, gazing down at her dispassionately. "I know you've accused us of lying to you when we said we would harm your brother if necessary to force you to cooperate. Even if you've never said the words, you've thought them, I'm sure. Well, now you know that we don't make idle threats. I think you should put some serious consideration into whether you can afford to fail your next test or not."

"You're horrible!" Aya screamed. As childish as it was, she couldn't think of anything else to say to him. It was all she could do not to cry in front of him. Six years, and the first time she was allowed to see her brother, it was only like this. And worse, now her bluff had been called. She didn't dare risk any real harm coming to Ran, and Crawford knew it.

"Think about it," he cautioned her again as he turned to leave the room.

Once the door had closed behind him, Aya flung one of her books at the wall and burst into tears.

/-/-/-/

After almost two straight weeks of travel, Ken was more than ready to arrive at their destination. He was tired, his wounds either ached or itched, depending on how far along in the healing process they were, and he missed Ran so much that it seemed as if a fierce ache had taken up permanent residence in his chest. The worst part was that he didn't even know if this woman they were going to see was alive or able to help them. It was almost unbearable to think that they might have come this far only to waste their time.

Of course, the trip itself hadn't been a complete waste of time. Once they had established which roads to take to reach their destination, they had been gratified to discover that Ran's attackers seemed to have taken the same route. It had taken them several days to discover the first hints of that, but once they began to make inquiries, they found people who had witnessed the men passing only a day or two before them. As they continued south, the trail had gotten fainter and the number of days between them greater, until finally they seemed to have vanished all together, but Youji was fairly confident that they were headed to the right place. Ken could only hope he was right, because being wrong meant not finding Ran, and that was intolerable.

It was just dusk, and they were almost to the place the last person they had talked to had told them they would find Keiko's house. The trail they were on was rough and obviously not often used by horses, and in the dim light they'd had to dismount and lead the animals on foot. Ken thought dismally that this was a great place for an ambush, with them all lined up single file, and then almost wished that there would be an ambush, so that at least he'd know they were on the right track.

However, his dire forebodings proved unfounded, and they reached the small house in the middle of a clearing without incident. There was at least one light on inside, which was an encouraging sign. Youji found a convenient tree branch to tether the horses to, and they approached and knocked on the door.

For a moment, there was stillness. Then within the house they heard the faint, shuffling sounds of someone moving slowly and with great care. A moment later, the door was opened by a woman old enough to have been Ken's grandmother. She brushed wispy white hair out of her face and peered at them curiously.

"Yes? Can I help you gentlemen?" she asked.

"Are you Keiko?" Youji asked.

"I am," she said.

"I believe that you may have been acquainted with a member of the Hanashite family once, is that correct?" Youji asked.

The woman drew back a pace, and her curiosity did an instant transformation into wariness. "Who are you?" she asked.

"We're friends of the late Miss Hanashite's son," Youji explained. "He vanished recently, and we think it may be connected to what happened with his mother when she was younger. We were hoping you might know where he'd gone."

The woman still watched them guardedly. "I never knew Nanako had a son," she said.

"She had a daughter too," Youji said. "She's been missing far longer than her brother has. She vanished about six years ago. That was the last time you wrote to Nanako, wasn't it?" And he held up the letter that had tried to warn Ran's mother of approaching danger, only to lie unopened in a desk for six years.

Keiko took the letter and inspected it. "I sent this to Nanako," she said finally. "I wanted her to know what was happening here."

"She was dead when that letter arrived," Youji informed her regretfully. "Her daughter vanished shortly afterwards."

"And you want to help this girl?" Keiko asked.

"And her brother," Youji said. "He's the one who originally brought us into all of this."

Keiko heaved a sad sigh. "You'd better come inside," she said finally. "What you want to know will probably take some time to tell."

Youji bowed and thanked her profusely, stepping into the house when she moved out of the doorway. Omi and Ken, who had both been standing slightly behind him in the shadows moved to follow him, and Keiko had just shut the door behind them when Ken heard her gasp. Quickly he spun around, wondering if they had been followed or if someone had been lying in wait for him. When he found no immediate sign of danger, he turned in confusion to the woman, wondering what had alarmed her so, only to find her gaze fixed in disbelief on Omi.

"My goodness," she whispered. "It can't be... Mamoru?"

Tbc...

Yes, I am evil like that sometimes.


End file.
